An Advent Mindset: Zechariah’s Shift

Do you have an Advent mindset? Zechariah’s shift in mindset can inspire you this year.

Happy second week of Advent! I’m happy to delve deeper into the biblical accounts with you during Advent.

We’ll be taking a closer look at what was going on in the mindset of people in the biblical account before and during Jesus’ birth. Then we’ll discuss what their mindset can teach us about how to think during Advent.

Zechariah’s Story

We can learn a lot from Zechariah’s account in Luke 1. He was a priest in the line of Aaron, and his wife Elizabeth shared in that bloodline. The Bible praises both Zechariah and Elizabeth for being obedient to God’s commands. Yet both were old and unable to have children.

Zechariah received the once-in-a-lifetime honor of entering a special place in the temple. When he entered that place to burn incense, an angel of the Lord appeared there. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he would have a son, set apart for the Lord, with the spirit of Elijah the prophet. This would have been astounding news, because God was breaking a 400-year silence with this announcement. And Zechariah would have known that right away.

Yet Zechariah wanted more proof. He said, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” (Luke 1:18 NIV) Remember, Zechariah was a priest, well-advanced in years. He had access to the scrolls of God’s Word, and all the knowledge a life of faith brings. But he still had a hard time seeing how God could do this miracle – even though God had worked a similar miracle for Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17, 21).

Gabriel rebuked Zechariah for his lack of trust in God. Zechariah paid a high price for this: he lost the ability to speak until his son John was born, nine months later. I believe God gave Zechariah this consequence because of this principle in Luke 12:48 – to whom much is given, much is required.

Do you have an Advent mindset? Zechariah's shift in mindset can inspire you this year. #advent #mindset #biblestudy Click To Tweet

Zechariah’s Prayer

As soon as John was born, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and able to speak again. His song is listed as a prophecy in Luke 1:68-79:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

We can study Zechariah’s mindset shift by looking closely at this prayer.

An Advent Mindset: Zechariah’s Shift

Zechariah’s mindset shift is clear in his prayer. Like we learned about Mary last week, he reflected on God’s faithfulness to his people over a long period of time. He praised God as his Redeemer, Promise Keeper, Savior, Rescuer, Holy and Righteous One and Most High. God’s character grounded Zechariah’s faith.

Though Zechariah had to sense he would not live to see his son grow to be an adult, he looked toward the future with great hope. He trusted that God would use his son to prepare a way for the long-promised Messiah. The future in Zechariah’s eyes was a picture of light and peace.

We see no sign of doubt in Zechariah’s prayer. His mindset had changed over the long, nine-month refining period. He saw God’s promise fulfilled right before him, in his own home, just as the angel had announced. Zechariah knew that if God worked that miracle in his family, all the other promises would surely come to pass. Our last view of Zechariah in Scripture is of a man of great faith.

We see no sign of doubt in Zechariah’s prayer. His mindset had changed over the long, nine-month refining period. #faith #advent #mindset Click To Tweet

Our Advent Mindset Shift

Like many of us, Zechariah had real faith, but only up to a point. So many of us really do believe, but need God to help us in our pockets of unbelief (see Mark 9:14-29). I have these pockets, and so do you. We only notice them when we are pushed to our limits.

Have you ever said, “If only God would show up, I’d believe”? I’ve said this many times! We think it would be easier to believe if we could experience God with our five senses. Yet Zechariah was visited by Gabriel, who stood in the presence of God, and that wasn’t enough to convince him. It probably wouldn’t be enough to convince us either.

Remember, even the disciples had a hard time trusting Jesus in the flesh. God wants us to have faith that believes even when we can’t see (John 20:29). All of us reading this today technically fit into that category, because we haven’t laid eyes on Jesus either. But that doesn’t get us off the hook for our pockets of unbelief, just as it didn’t get Zechariah off the hook with God even when he saw the angel Gabriel.

God blesses blind faith, the kind of faith that goes all-in without knowing all the details. The kind of faith that Mary displayed as a young girl whose life would most certainly be turned upside-down. Perhaps God knew that Zechariah’s real doubt was to step out of his comfort zone. We have all been guilty of this at some time. But this Advent, we can ask God to shift our mindsets into deeper faith that trusts him beyond all limits.

God blesses blind faith, the kind of faith that goes all-in without knowing all the details. #faith #trustGod #advent Click To Tweet

Reflection Time

In which area do you need to trust God more? To believe his promises are real? I pray he will use this devotion to stir your heart today. To shine a light on those hidden pockets of unbelief and bring them out in the open. I pray you’ll be able to look back on this Advent season and see where God challenged you to deeper faith, and you stepped forward without knowing all the details. That your faith grew to mountain heights because you trusted in God’s faithfulness and looked forward to the future with hope and peace.

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An Advent Mindset: Zechariah’s Shift

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