When Zacharias went up to the temple, an angel appeared unto him saying “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John."
By now, both Zacharias and Elisabeth were both "well stricken in years," and finally the Lord decides to bless them with a child; what took Him so long? Where was the blessing for His obedient servants earlier in their lives? Where was His answer after the first prayer? Or the tenth?
After years, years, of prayers and obedience to the Lord, Zacharias and Elisabeth were finally blessed with an answer, blessed with a child. And the truth is that all those years, years, of praying, they were heard. Every single prayer, whether uttered aloud on their knees or a silent plea with a glance heavenward, every prayer was heard by God, our Heavenly Father.
Something that is hard to remember, and hard to understand, is that just because God does not answer our prayers, it does not mean He has not heard them.
In a recent regional conference for Utah Valley, Elder Richard G. Scott said that when God does not answer, it is because He trusts us. He trusts us to take the necessary faith and action to continue to do what He has asked us to do, even if we are unsure of its validity or meaning or merit. He trusts us to continue to give of our time and efforts to seek after truth and knowledge. He trusts us to be humble and open our hearts.
He trusts us to trust Him.
God's silence is a message in itself: that in this life we are in a stage of growth. We get to choose the path we walk. What will we do when His silence follows our prayers; Will we continue to let our faith in Him blossom and grow through obedience? Or will we wither and shrink in the face of doubt and inaction?
Above all, remember: "Thy prayer is heard."
God lives. God loves. God listens.
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