Shelf Life of Prayer

I'm always interested in the shelf life of items at the grocery store.  Some are surprisingly long, others very short.   

The Bible tells us there can be a long shelf life on prayer.  In Luke 1, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah in the temple, next to the altar of incense (a symbol of prayer) and said "Don't be afraid" (angels always have to say that) "Your prayer has been heard, you're going to have a son."  Zechariah basically asked, What prayer? Are you kidding?"  He had totally forgotten. It had been decades since he and Elizabeth had prayed that.  He had given up.  They were now too old to even think about it.   

But not only was his prayer heard, it was fresh in heaven.  The answer was bigger than they thought. (John the Baptist!)  The timing was bigger than they thought. (the coming of Christ!) 

After losing a short argument with Gabriel, the main angel of heaven, Zechariah's mouth was shut until he saw the answer nine months later.  The next time he opened it, he was full of faith and praise.  

Dust off your old prayers.  Some of them still have life.