Light some incense today!

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Revelation 7-9; Psalm 42

TO CHEW ON: “Then another angel having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.” Revelation 8:3-4

In John’s vision, events in heaven continue to play out. He (the Lamb) opens the seventh seal to reveal an expanding vista of seven trumpets. The seven judgments they announce (8:2-11:18) are cataclysmic. The first four (found in our reading today) affect the natural world and remind us of the Egyptian plagues (hail, blood, polluted water, death to living creatures, darkness).

What I find fascinating are the two verses about the saints’ prayers that precede the fateful trumpet blasts. They seem almost out of place. Here, as earlier (Revelation 5:8), an angel presents these prayers to God as incense.

Incense has been associated with deity and worship since ancient times. Divination by interpreting the shapes that rose from incense smoke was an inexpensive way for poor people to determine the will of the gods. The Egyptians and other Gentile nations used it in their worship. Still today it is part of the practice of Buddhism, Christian Orthodoxy and other religions.

• In Old Testament religious practice, only the priests were allowed to offer incense. Moses’ instructions to Aaron included strict regulations concerning its makeup and use (Exodus 30:34-36). 

• God specifically forbade the personal mixing and use of the incense designed for worship (Exodus 30:37-38). 

• David first likened prayers to incense (Psalm 141:2). 

• God warned the Israelites through Isaiah that offerings, including the burning of incense, done while clinging to known sin were offensive to Him (Isaiah 1:13).  

• In Malachi its use symbolized the universal worship of God: “In every place incense shall be offered to My name…” Malachi 1:11

That the prayers of the saints (us!) should be equated with something as integral to worship as incense tells us how important they are to God. Here they are directly connected to the judgments that follow. For after presenting the incense prayers to God, the angel takes the golden censer that held them, fills it with fire from the altar, throws it to earth, and the action begins.

This focus on prayer makes me want to spend more time on this aspect of my relationship with God. As Barbara Billet expresses it:

“I ask You, Lord, that You would fill me with Your consuming fire today. I desire to be used as a house of prayer so that I can pray heartfelt, fervent, effectual prayers that will cause my prayer life to have much power, available, dynamic in its working.” Barbara Billet, Praying With Fire, p. 19

PRAYER: Dear God, please teach me to pray. Amen

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 42

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Foxhole prayers

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Chronicles 11-14;  Psalm 66

TO CHEW ON: "I will pay You my vows,
Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble."  Psalm 66:13,14

Have you ever prayed, God something like, If You help me out of this situation I'll ______ (go to Africa; never do this thing again; do whatever You ask; etc.)'? Then after the crisis passed, did you follow through with your promise?

The practice of making vows to God when in trouble is thousands of years old. My Bible dictionary defines Bible vows:

"A vow may be either to perform or abstain from an act in return for God's favour or as an expression of zeal or devotion towards God. It is no sin to vow or not to vow, but if made—presumably uttered—a vow is as sacredly binding as an oath. Therefore a vow should not be made hastily" - New Bible Dictionary p. 1313.

Bible characters certainly took vows seriously.

• Israel's judge Jephthah vowed that whatever came out of his house to meet him after victory in battle he would sacrifice—and was shocked when that turned out to be his daughter (Judges 11:30,40).

• Saul was ready to kill his own son when it was discovered Jonathan had eaten honey during battle after Saul had sworn the people to fast all day (1 Samuel 14:24-45).

• Here the psalmist promises to pay the vow he spoke while in trouble. Does the need for such a statement imply that he may have considered not keeping his promise to God?

What troubles me about making vows is the undertone of manipulation—as if our potential action will convince God to come through for us. (Jesus alludes to the futility of our vow-making in Matthew 5:33-37).

Still, when our backs are against the wall and we're desperate, I would hazard most of us would not be above praying frantic foxhole prayers. Whether we follow through with the promises we make in them is a measure of how seriously we take God and our word to Him.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me not to use manipulation in my relationship with You. When I do make promises, help me to act with as much integrity toward You as I would if I had made those promises to a person. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 66

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The prayer that changed a nation's story

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Nehemiah 1-3; Psalm 48

TO CHEW ON: "And so it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days' I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." - Nehemiah 1:4


The word economy of the Bible quickly gets us to the crux of the matter in this story that takes place at the end of the Old Testament time. The described state of his fellow Hebrews in Jerusalem distresses Nehemiah (who is a servant of Persian King Artaxerxes) immensely. So he does what we should all do when we're distressed—goes to the One who can help.

Nehemiah 1:5-11 is Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer. Let's look closely at it to see what we can learn about prayer from it.

1. Nehemiah begins by addressing God: "Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God..." His beginning puts him in his place and vaults God to His. By saying these faith-building words (Nehemiah 1:5) Nehemiah also reminds himself of God's power and ability to answer.

2. Nehemiah includes himself with the people (Nehemiah 1:6-7).  Though he is many miles away and probably hasn't participated personally in the sins he confesses, he stands in solidarity with his countrymen. His identification with them also shows his understanding of how God works in and through nations.

3. He prays God's words back to Him. Nehemiah 1:8-9 are a paraphrase a Moses' words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, recalling words of warning and blessing to Israel from centuries earlier (see Leviticus 26:33 and Deuteronomy 4:25-27, 29-30; 28:63-67; 30:4).

4. He names his request. He reminds God of the investment He has already made in Israel (Nehemiah 1:10) and pleads for mercy, for himself (from his boss, the King of Persia; 'would God move the heart of a king to give him favor?') and in that, also for all of Israel (Nehemiah 1:11).

The rest of the book of Nehemiah tells the story of how King Artaxerxes releases Nehemiah from his duties, finances and equips his trip to Jerusalem, and then how Nehemiah leads the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall and eventually a spiritual revival.

What large and small things are troubling us today? Let's pray about them. Let's pray remembering how big and capable God is in contrast to our own neediness, frailty, and unworthiness. Let's pray God's words—His promises—back to Him, naming our requests with all the passion and emotion they bring up in his.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for prayer. Help me to realize that a burden about a situation or person is also an invitation to pray about it. Help me to pray from my heart,  with faith in You and Your power. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 48

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Is prayer really necessary?

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Exodus 2:11-25

TO CHEW ON: “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel and God acknowledged them.” Exodus 2:24,25

Meanwhile back in Egypt, where we left the Israelites a week ago, the people were getting desperate  Under their cruel slave masters they “groaned” and “cried out” - Exodus 2:23.

Then God heard, remembered, looked and acknowledged - Exodus 2:24,25. I looked up each of these words in the Hebrews. Their meanings are pretty straightforward:

Heard - Shama
Remembered - Zakar
Looked - Ra’ah
Acknowledged - Yada

It appears the Israelites got God’s attention But they did something to get it: they groaned and cried out.

This isn’t the only time such a thing is mentioned. Notice what Abraham’s divine visitor said about why God chose to act over the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah: “‘I will go down now and see whether they (the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah) have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me…’” Genesis 18:21.

The word for “outcry” is tsaqah. The same word is used in God’s conversation with Moses to describe Israel’s present condition in the next chapter - Exodus 3:7.

That outcry was also the action of the Israelites that God responded to when He gave them a king - 1 Samuel 9:16.

To me this speaks of the necessity of prayer. Here is how some of history’s prayer warriors have described the importance of prayer:

“Prayer is the contact of a living soul with God. In prayer, God stoops to kiss man, to bless man, and to aid in everything that God can devise or man can need” - E. M. Bounds

“Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of omnipotence” - Charles Spurgeon.

“In prayer you align yourselves to the purpose and power of God and He is able to do things through you that He couldn’t do otherwise. For this is an open universe, where some things are left open, contingent upon our doing them. If we do not do them, they will never be done. For God has left certain things open to prayer—things which will never be done except as we pray” - E. Stanley Jones.

- All quotes taken from the “Introduction” to The Hour that Changes the World by Dick Eastman, emphasis added.

What things distress us to the point of crying out? What issues in our lives need God’s hearing, remembering, looking, and acknowledging? Let’s keep crying out in prayer over these things.



PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for the privilege and responsibility of prayer. Help me to pray with faith that You will, in Your time, hear, remember, look, and acknowledge. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Erecting memorials on our knees

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Acts 10:1-16

TO CHEW ON: “About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in the vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius!’ And when he observed him he was afraid, and said, ‘What is it Lord?’ So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial to God.’ Acts 10:3,4

It has become customary in the last few years to erect roadside memorials near the sites of accidents where people have died. You’ll find such fading crosses and makeshift cairns along many a Canadian roadside and street. Though at first they are surrounded by flowers, teddy bears, cards and other bits of memorabilia, the continued care of some surprises me. It probably shouldn’t, because it’s not unusual to want to keep the memory of a loved one alive. A tidy, well-maintained memorial is testimony to the fact that someone wants the world to keep remembering the person they loved.

The angel who came to Cornelius called his alms and prayers “a memorial before God.”

[Memorial [mnemon – here mnemosunom]: means mindful, to call to mind, to make mention of. It is also translated recall, remember, remembered, remembering, thinking.]

In the Bible a memorial is usually a reminder to us (humans) about some aspect of God and our relationship to Him. Feasts (the Passover, the Lord’s Supper) are called memorials (Exodus 13:9, 1 Corinthians 11:24). They remind us of God’s action on our behalf. The memorial manna sample was a reminder of God’s care in giving the Israelites  daily food (Exodus 16:32). The extravagant anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary of Bethany at Simon's dinner was the memorial she left to us as someone who loved well (Matthew 26:13). Here, though, the memorial goes the other way. Cornelius’s alms and prayers reminded God of him (Acts 10:4).

I believe our prayers operate in the same way. It’s comforting to think of petitions uttered on behalf of friends, kids, family members, communities, countries, leaders, even the world as little crosses beside the streets of heaven – little reminders to God: Don’t forget Susie with cancer, Doug the prodigal, Chad the missionary, my Prime Minister, the victims of current natural disasters… Let’s keep praying and maintaining our memorials as strong, fresh, and urgent before God.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this picture of my prayers. Help me to understand the seriousness and necessity of them. Amen.


MORE: "Why cannot an omnipotent God, knowing our needs, supply them without waiting for our prayers? He could, of course, but that is not His plan for His children on earth. Instead, He has dared to arrange it so that He is actually dependent upon us in the sense of prayers being necessary and all-important to the carrying out of His will on earth." Catherine Marshall - The Helper, 1978.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

Expand the Lord's Prayer for your situation

"Jesus Prays for His Disciples" - Alexandre Bida

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 11:1-23

TO CHEW ON: "So He said to them, 'When you pray say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'" - Luke 11:2

"This prayer is not a formula for repetition so much as it is an outline for expansion," says Jack Hayford in a sidebar article in my Bible.*

Let's separate Jesus' model prayer into its different sorts of praying and look at how we might expand what He said:

Worship
"Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name…"

To expand our worship we could:
- Praise God for who He is as portrayed by the various names He is called in the Bible.
- Recite or read praise passages and psalms back to Him.
- Sing praise songs that draw our attention to His excellence.
- Recall specific things God has done for us, then praise and thank Him for them.

Intercession
"Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven."

Hayford explains, "Jesus' words 'Your kingdom come' are more than a suggestion to pray for a distant millennial day …. The verb, mood, and tense of 'Your kingdom come' essentially says, 'Father, let your kingdom come here and now!'"*

It shouldn't be hard for us to expand on this. All we need ask ourselves is:
- Where, to whom, in what situations are we burdened to see the kingdom of God come? People with illness, troubled relationships, money and job problems, away from the Lord, overcome by trauma of any kind will come to mind. Regions and whole countries caught in the throes of unrest and war also need our intercession.

Petition
"Give us this day our daily bread…"

Most of us, in North America at least, probably have all the bread we need and more. But this part of Jesus' prayer is an invitation to bring to Him the specifics of what we do need, whether it's physical or mental, ministry-related or personal. Do we need help in finding a new car to replace our old jalopy?  Wisdom to know how to deal with a rebellious child? Help in finding volunteers for the church nursery? Whatever it is, we can bring these specifics to God in petition.

Repentance
"And forgive us our sins
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."

That was easy! Not so quick. Asking for forgiveness also needs to be in specifics. As we search our consciences before God, He can bring to mind sins of commission (bad things we've done) and omission (things we should have done but didn't). By naming and confessing them, we not only empty our hearts of guilt and shame, but alert ourselves the wrongness of our actions and in this way set a guard against committing them again.

Hayford again:

"…the praying is ours to do: unless we ask for the intervention of His kingdom and obey His prayer lessons, nothing will change. All kingdom ministry begins with and is sustained by, and will triumph through prayer."*

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to not only learn how to pray but to spend more time in sincere, effective, kingdom-invoking prayer as it relates to my life. Amen.

*All Hayford quotes taken from the article "Prayer and Intercession," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1409.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.