“And now you be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words which will come true at the appointed time.” Luke 1:20

I will never forget the summer I lost my voice. We had just moved to Toronto to begin our ministry there. Our kids were all young. Having no voice was very challenging.

I was thinking about when this happened to Zachariah in Luke 1. We read that he also lost his voice, but his story was quite different. Zachariah had met the angel Gabriel and was told that his wife would have a baby in her old age. He found this hard to believe. To demonstrate the truth of his words, the angel took away Zachariah’s voice. He would only have it back when the fulfillment of what was promised had come to pass.

The root of Zachariah’s silence was unbelief. When we fail to believe God for what He is doing, we also find ourselves silent. That silence cannot declare the incredible thing God is doing and bring glory to God because of our unbelief.

When Zachariah expressed his unbelief regarding his wife bearing a child in her old age, it was not only he that lost, but everyone else also. They knew something had happened but were deprived of the blessing and the incredible faith building story because of Zachariah’s silence.

Recently my husband prayed for God to heal someone in hospital. The situation looked very bad. He prayed for healing. The next morning, this individual was released from hospital. I was surprised that they failed to see any connection between my husband’s prayer and their healing. We gave thanks to God for what He did. These people did not see it like that at all.

When we fail to believe, it is like losing your voice to share of the great things that God has done and will do. May we each have that beautiful faith to believe so we can tell others of the mountains that have moved and lives that are changed.

Dear Father,

Thank you for your Word today. Forgive me for my unbelief. You are the God of the impossible. I choose to trust You so that I might be able to declare Your praise to those around me. You alone do great things. I delight to speak of them.

In Jesus Name,

Amen