Zechariah makes the announcement: “Now is the day of God’s favour, his protection is back in place, and his purpose is to strengthen his people and make them victorious.” The application of this is clear: pray and ask God for strength and victory. Or to use Zechariah’s imagery: it is springtime, the time for rain, so ask God for rain. Now is the time for favour, so ask God for favour. This promise applies to us because we live in “the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:19-21). But let’s not take this in an individualistic way. The promises of God do not apply to our self-centred desires and goals; they apply to the purpose God has for us. We might be inclined to use prayer as though it was a magic incantation for good fortune. So often we pray with a focus on what we want to achieve in life without any view of what God may want to achieve through us. God wants us to pray with a view to his expressed purpose for us. He simply insists that we have the best, and his plan for us is best no matter how it feels in the short term. God wants us, above all, to be fruitful. That is true blessing (Psalm 1:3). The promise of Zechariah, and the promise that Jesus affirmed for us, is that the time for bearing fruit is at hand. So, ask God to make you fruitful. Why ask though? We ask because prayer is the aligning of our desires with God’s will. It connects us with him. It lifts us up to a greater purpose.
Pray for God to realise his purpose for you today.
Read Zechariah 10
