Good morning! It is Thursday, December 28, 2023. The disciples asked Jesus in Luke 11:1, “Teach us to pray!” That’s my prayer, too. We don’t realize how powerful our prayers are. However, most of our prayers are alley-oop prayers of desperation, like the Hail Mary passes in football; we toss them up with little hope for them to be answered. But in Revelation, God reveals that our prayers are an important ingredient to His plan. Powerful prayers aren’t “tossed up.” They are accumulated. Are ours worth accumulating? Read on …
Today's Reading:
Revelation 5,6,7,8,9
Scripture
“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people …. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake." (Revelation 8:3-5)
Observation
Reading Revelation is like diving into a sci-fi series on TV seasoned with bite-sized truths woven throughout. It's all truth, of course, but our understanding and comprehension can only catch short glimpses of it along the way. Our ability to digest truth is limited. Most of the truths may seem a galaxy away from my mind's grasp, but God never holds us accountable for what we don't understand. God only holds us accountable for what we do!
Application
Although the end is coming, Revelation is not a fatalistic, defeatist philosophy of life. Instead, it refocuses us back to our responsibility amid a wobbling earth. Here is a brief glimpse of how our prayers work and their effect on Earth. "... He took the prayers of the saints … and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth, and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake" (Rev. 8:4-5).
God takes the prayers of the saints and mixes with it fire from the altar of heaven. Then, the results are seen in mammoth ways on Earth. In this snippet of truth, I find that my prayers are not hollow. As our prayers accumulate, they increasingly become powerful!
Prayer
Lord, I pray for my family, the church, the ministry, and other leaders, regardless of what I see or don’t see. I cannot make peals of thunder take place on earth. However, I can pray until the adequate amount accumulates before Your throne. In the fullness of time, with the fire off of Your altar, we will see the vast effects on earth!
Teach us to pray!
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