Day 54 - Broken Voice
Sometimes a lack of faith can leave you speechless. Our faith, or the lack thereof, can make a powerful difference in the way we impact others for the cause of Christ.
There was a man named Zechariah (also spelled ‘Zacharias’) who was married to a woman named Elizabeth. They were advanced in years with no children. After all these many years without a child, God intervened in their lives and did an amazing thing. God dispatched the angel Gabriel to tell this happy couple that they would be the parents of a bouncing baby boy.
Zacharias didn’t exactly respond with childlike faith. Instead, he had a question for Gabriel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man.†(Luke 1:18) You might say that Zacharias’ unbelief was not breath-taking, it was ‘speech-taking.’ Gabriel was not at all impressed with Zacharias’ unbelief, “you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words…†(Luke 1:20)
The moral of the story is clear. Our lack of faith freezes our spiritual vocal cords. Our unbelief paralyzes our ability to tell the good news. The glad tidings of the Gospel become muted when we allow our distrust of God to cast long shadows in our life.
For nine long months, Zacharias was silent. When it came time to name the baby, Zacharias wrote on a tablet, “His name is John.†(v. 63) His lips were loosed, and Zacharias speaks out the prophetic praises of God for twelve entire verses—a bold, biblical blabbermouth!
Put your trust in God today, and watch how the Lord will loose your lips to speak out His praise to a doubting world that desperately needs to hear the Good News.
Today’s Scripture Promise: “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your salvation all day long; for I do not know the sum of them.” (Psalm 71:15)