As I got to reading Luke Chapter 1, I couldn’t help but stop at verse 13.

But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. (Luke 1:13, KJV)

“Thy prayer is heard,” the angel said.

What prayer was that? The couple’s prayer for a child. It was common for a childless couple to hope and to pray for a miracle. There was a stigma surrounding barren women in the Bible. In fact, those who didn’t have children were often looked down upon as though God had cursed them in some way. And so, normally that wouldn’t stand out to me, but this time it does. Why? Because the Bible tells us that they were well stricken in years.

They weren’t just old, they were very old. And so, there’s a good chance that they’d given up hope. The fact that Zacharias didn’t believe it was possible at their age, makes it all the more likely that this dream of being a parent was no longer in play.

Here’s the amazing thing about God: He doesn’t forget. He remembers our prayers. He’s remembers the ones we have long forgotten about. He remembers the days when we prayed and we prayed, before giving up hope. He remembers the words that you spoke 20 years ago at the side of your bed. He remembers the one that you prayed last night. He remembers the hopes and the dreams that you took to prayer. He remembers your affliction and pain. He remembers the quiet moments you slipped away for a short word of prayer. He remembers the times you prayed for your friends. He remembers each word that you spoke.

When you feel as though your prayer has been lost, It hasn’t. When you think that He doesn’t see you or hear you, He does. When you think that prayer has long been forgotten, it’s not. Don’t give up on the power of prayer!

Throughout scripture we see the burning of incense as a symbol of prayer. We see that the priests were instructed to continuously burn incense in the Holy Place of the Temple. We see it ascending to God as a sweet aroma. And finally, we see all the prayers of God’s people beautifully held in the golden bowls of heaven, so that they might be poured out to the Lord.

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation 5:8, KJV)

Imagine these bowls overflowing with prayers… Spilling out at the feet of our Lord… Flooding the throne room of heaven… And after you stop to think about that, imagine the difference that your prayers can make.


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Tilling the Soil

Read Luke 1:1-25

Planting Hope

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation 5:8, KJV)


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Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.

She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.

It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical FitnessReshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.

Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.

Connect with Darlene:

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You are loved by an almighty God,

Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife