Your Prayer Has Been Heard
We worship a God who hears.
And it’s never more evident than at Christmas. Before anyone saw a star or heard angels proclaiming in the night sky, God was already answering centuries of prayers, in His perfect timing. When we read the Christmas story, we see that our God does not forget, even when His people feel forgotten. All of God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). We can trust that long seasons of silence are not signs of absence, and delayed answers are not ignored requests.
“Your prayer has been heard.”
Those are astounding words.
Daniel heard them after crying out to God, trying to understand a troubling vision. The angel Gabriel told him: “Don’t be afraid, Daniel… your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers” (Daniel 10:12 CSB).
God heard Daniel the moment he prayed. And soon afterwards, Daniel heard these tender words: “Don’t be afraid, you who are treasured by God. Peace to you; be very strong!” (Daniel 10:19)
More than 500 years later, the angel Gabriel reappeared to another man, Zechariah, when he was burning incense and praying in the temple. And the angel spoke almost the same phrase: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” (Luke 1:13a)
One Messenger, One Message
It’s worth noticing that only two angels are named in all of Scripture—Michael and Gabriel. Michael spoke only once, and not to a person but to the devil (Jude 9). Gabriel alone delivered spoken messages from God to His people. And across both the Old and New Testaments, the angel brought the same message to two men who had been praying: “Do not be afraid… your prayer has been heard.”
Why those words? Perhaps because most of us need reassurance that our prayers matter. Perhaps that’s why God sent one messenger to carry the same message across centuries—to two men waiting in the dark—reminding us that the God who heard Daniel’s cry is the same God who heard Zechariah’s. And the same God who hears ours. After 400 years of silence, with no word from the Lord, the angel Gabriel came to declare that God had been listening all along.
Gabriel went on to say, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and …there will be joy and delight for you” (Luke 1:13b-14). This was wonderful news, but unlike Daniel, the wait had been long for Zechariah. Decades of praying. So long, in fact, that he doubted it would happen. People their age didn’t have babies. That hope had been buried years earlier. So understandably he responded, “How can I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”
When Hope Has Been Buried
God was about to do the impossible and Zechariah was unprepared.
Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous, but Elizabeth had been barren—a word I hesitate to use because it feels so cruel. Empty. Their empty arms must have ached for years. In that culture, barrenness meant judgment, reproach, even God’s displeasure in the eyes of others. Perhaps the stigma shaped their fervent prayers. Perhaps, eventually, they simply stopped praying them. Many of us know what it feels like to carry a hope so long it begins to feel foolish. And when hope feels foolish, prayer often feels pointless.
And yet, they walked through a painful story blamelessly. They didn’t blame God, renounce their faith, stop serving, or grow bitter. They didn’t expect that their righteousness meant all their dreams would come true. Instead, they accepted the life they had been given and lived faithfully within it. They weren’t demanding changed circumstances—they responded to disappointment with faithful obedience.
You can imagine Zechariah’s shock when an angel suddenly announced that those long-forgotten prayers had been heard. It sounded impossible. Maybe even unkind. After years of disappointment, why open the door to hope again?
That’s how many of us cope with disappointment; we close the door ourselves. We’d rather deny our longings than continually hold them out to God. Yet John Blase writes, “Contentment without hope is just a mask for resignation.”
Disappointment doesn’t just dull our hope; it shapes our theology.
Have you let go of hope? Do you believe your prayers have been heard? Do you believe you are deeply loved?
When Faithfulness Looks Ordinary
Zechariah struggled to believe a miracle was possible. He wasn’t alone in that. Abraham and Sarah also waited for a child for decades. God had promised descendants, but after so many barren years, they tried to fulfill the promise on their own through Hagar. And when God later told them they would have a child together, both Abraham and Sarah laughed. It felt safer to cling to what they knew than to hope for what seemed impossible.
But unlike Abraham, Zechariah had no specific word from God to cling to—only a lifetime of ordinary faithfulness. He and Elizabeth were simply praying, like we do. Waiting without knowing what God intended. Hoping without a timeline. Living by faith, trusting God without guarantees.
So don’t be too hard on Zechariah for his questions. He was bewildered at what was happening. After asking how the miracle he’d long prayed for could possibly happen, he spent nine months in silence reflecting on God’s goodness and promises.
When Zechariah finally spoke, his first words were praise, overflowing declarations of the tender mercy of God. I wonder how much he related his own situation to Abraham’s when he said, “He has dealt mercifully with our ancestors and remembered his holy covenant— the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant that we…would serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days” (Luke 1:72–75).
Zechariah saw that his story fit into a much larger story of God’s grace. So does ours.
If you are waiting today—wondering if your prayers will ever be answered the way you long for—I hope you’ll take heart. God is not slow, though His timing rarely matches ours. Zechariah was chosen by lot to burn incense that day, but the timing was anything but random. This was the time appointed by God. And in due time, just like Abraham and Sarah held Isaac, Elizabeth and Zechariah held John, the one foretold by the prophets.
But their faith was never in an outcome. Their faith was in God Himself. They trusted Him to give what was best in His time. And so it is with us. He will always give us what is best, when it’s best.
Zechariah’s story reminds us that God hears as soon as we pray, often long before we see evidence of His answer.
When You’re Still Waiting
So don’t give up. God hears every word we pray.
Our prayers are like incense before God (Psalm 141:2), fragrant offerings of faith in the One who hears. Revelation tells us that our prayers fill golden bowls of incense in heaven—precious offerings held before God (Revelation 5:8). Not one slips through His fingers. Not one falls to the ground forgotten.
There are prayers I whispered decades ago—prayers I’ve long forgotten. I don’t even remember what I asked. But God does. He has kept them all.
And in the fullness of time, His answer will come.
This is the hope of Christmas: God has not forgotten you. The same God who came to us in Bethlehem will come to you in your waiting. He holds every prayer and hears every cry. His timing is perfect, and His presence is sure.
So this Christmas, dare to pray again. Dare to hope again. Pour out your heart to Him, knowing all of heaven is listening. Your prayer will be heard. Not a single word will be wasted.