We live in days—though maybe it’s always been this way—when it is hard to keep praying. If you turn on the news, it always seems full of disease, death, and destruction. The godlessness of our culture is everywhere, and the lawlessness of our governing authorities shows up every day. Still, my instinct tells me to turn to God. The old hymn tells me, “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”
In the book of Revelation, chapter 5 is John’s description of the throne room. The Lamb took the scroll of judgment into His hand, and then we read, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (verse 8).
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Psalm 141:2 describes this idea of prayer perfectly: “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2). When Gabriel appears to Zechariah to tell him his prayers have been heard and answered, Gabriel, is “standing at the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke 1:11). This happened when “the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense” (verse 10).
There are undoubtedly different types of prayers. The “prayers of the saints” don’t identify prayers by type, strength, or style. They are all mixed together in an incense bowl—which tells me that we should think of them together as a collective. God hears them and considers them, together, all of them as incense—a pleasing aroma.
Those called the “saints” in Revelation 5:8 are not an elite group of the “super-churchy” who appear to be more holy than the rest of us. The term saint is about being set apart by the gift of grace and the power of the blood. The saints are all believers in Christ Jesus, living or dead, who have been saved by grace through faith and “called to be saints” (Romans 1:7). When you pray, as God’s precious saint, it’s as though a golden bowl of incense is being carried to the very throne of God in heaven.
Who are these prayers of the saints for in Revelation 5:8? They seem to be the aggregate of all believers’ prayers through all time. When you pray for somebody’s salvation, that prayer goes into the bowl. When you pray for the safety of people after a disaster, that prayer goes in the bowl as well. Whether you pray that God conforms you into His image or delivers someone from addiction, that prayer is in the bowl. Such prayers are well-pleasing to Him.
In Revelation 5, the living creatures and elders sing joyfully to the Lamb: “With your blood, you purchased for God/persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9–10). God’s mission is being accomplished. The golden bowls full of incense (prayer) are offered to the one great God, whose word will stand and who will, someday soon, pronounce the final “Amen!” to the prayers of the saints.
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So, sisters and brothers do not lose heart, but pray. God will use your every prayer—no matter how sin-stained, weak, or despairing—to vindicate His glory here on earth! Give your prayers to the One who presents them as pure, pleasing, and powerful offerings by washing them with His blood—your Great High Priest, Jesus Christ!