Title: Zacharias (Luke 01:5)
Contents John the Baptist's father [Zacharias] (meaning "God remembers") is a witness who gained fervent faith by experiencing the amazing miracles of God.
Zacharias, a priest of the Abijah class, seemed to have no problem in a good family with his wife Elizabeth.
However, Zacharias, who lived unaware of his shortcomings, was worried that he would not have children despite continuing to pray and wait after marriage.
It was incomprehensible to people that Zacharias, who was recognized as a righteous person before God, had no children, the fruit of blessing.
Zacharias could not bear the pain whenever she felt ridicule from her neighbors, who held the popular notion that inability to have children is the result of crime. However, Zacharias was not discouraged and did not give up his earnest prayers. I heard that Zacharias' efforts to live faithfully as a priest of God and as the head of a family, overcoming the shame and sorrow, were tearful.
However, Zacharias' continued prayers were unanswered as if they were floating in the air and falling. There was no joy in the discouraged Zacharias, but his heart toward God did not fade in the slightest.
Then one year, an amazing thing happened to Zacharias, who was silently carrying out the office of a priest. In the temple in Jerusalem, an angel appeared in front of Zacharias, who was burning incense, and told them God's prophecy that a son would be born.
But Zacharias' mind was filled with negative thoughts. Faith could not coexist with Zacharias, who did not acknowledge the power of Almighty God and thought only of human physiological conditions. Zacharias' unbelief resulted in the punishment of being mute until the baby was born.
It was a frustrating day when it was difficult to communicate, but Zacharias was able to live with a fluttering hope in the surprise of the actual fulfillment of God's promises.
When the child was born, Zacharias named him "John" as God had commanded him to, and he felt a sense of liberation from the chains of his tongue. The lips that had been sealed by unbelief were opened wide by faith. From the mouth of Zacharias, who opened her lips after nine months, praises of thanks resounded.
After experiencing the truth that God's will must be fulfilled beyond human thoughts and conditions, Zacharias lived as a witness.
The unbelief of Zacharias, who even gave up prayer in the face of the human limit of the impossible, is also a form of our faith that repeats failure moment by moment.
However, God who remembers our prayers will meet the failures who gave up on them and solve their problems.
If Christianity is a religion of experience, Christians must be witnesses of experiencing God in their lives.
Today, when I deny myself, take up my cross, and silently follow the Lord, God will walk with me, take responsibility for everything, and lead me to the open gate of heaven.