Believe it

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

BELIEVE IT

Luke 1:21-25

21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

NIV

Zechariah should have gone in burnt the incense and come right out, but there was something special going on in there between him and Gabriel. Evidently the conversation was longer then what is recorded as we see the people were wondering why he was in the temple for so long. Of course we are told the people realized he had seen a vision which was due to the fact he could not speak, but indicated what happened through some kind of sign language of sorts. What is important here is they did in fact realize he had seen a vision. They did not dismiss him as being crazy, or some weirdo overzealous religious nut. They accepted the fact he has been in the presence of either an angel or the Lord himself. The fact this happened was also proven by the fact his wife who was past child bearing years became pregnant. Here is our life lesson. When God says he will do something, and he will say it, actually he has already said it, but in this sense, he will say it, and it will happen. When God does do something, like heal someone, do we believe it, or not? When he provides in a special way, do we believe it? When he says he will, even before is does it, do we believe he will? It is easy to say that we believe he can, but it should be just as easy to say we believe he will. There was no real proof of what Zechariah motioned that happened, other than he could not speak, but then who is to say that he could not actually speak and was just faking that part to make himself look good. But the truth is he could not, and the people believed. When God says, or does something we need to believe, period. Doubt is the same as disbelief and disbelief is sin. Believing even before seeing the evidence, such as when Elizabeth became pregnant, is true faith in God. God has given us his word filled with what he will do, and we need to believe it and believe all of it. It is not a matter of believe it or not, it is a matter of believe it.