When
the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an
hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were
given to them. And another angel came and stood wat the altar with a golden
censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the
saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense,
with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then
the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it
on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning,
and an earthquake. (Revelation
8:1-5 ESV).
Prayers are a fitting
response to the command “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Our
prayers are expressions of faith in God’s promise to be “our refuge and
strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
The picture here
invites us to see that God always hears our prayers. “The prayers of all God’s
people” include the prayers of children, of people just learning to pray, and
of believers who have prayed for many years.
There have been many
times when I wondered if God was truly listening to my prayers. More often than
not those were the times when the object of my prayers was not in alignment
with the will of God; however, some of the time I have felt a silence in
response to those prayers I knew to be perfectly aligned with God’s purpose. I
was proven wrong as time unfolded and God worked His purpose in a different
time than I imagined.
Like the smoke of
incense which slowly drifts through the room slowly filling it with its
fragrance, so it is with God’s answer to our prayers. Though the timing may not
be what we expect, God always answers our prayers!
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