The Prayers of Believers

Revelation 8:3-5

[3] And another angel came and stood at 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, [4] and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. [5] 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.

Our prayers, as weak as they are at times, are always mixed with what Christ has done for us. They rise up to God and have the power of thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. How precious are the prayers of believers.

“We dwell perpetually in the presence of far more than we can see. Our feelings say, “How can this thing be good?” But if God declares it is, that is enough. And as we follow on to know the Lord we learn that our puny circumstances shall never defy the powers of quickening Love. And Love kindles faith. And Love strengthens faith. And Love nourishes the full assurance of hope. And then Love leads us into prayer. For Love is always saying, “Seek ye My face”; and our hearts are always answering, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” But even as we seek, pressing through the outer courts of the House to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple, we are beset by a question, perhaps by a doubt that waits on the very threshold of the House, seeking to confound us as we would enter in: How can our prayer, so fitful, so interrupted, so weighted, so far from what we want it to be, rise to that pure place where His honor dwelleth?

And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints (forgiven sinners, whom Love names so) ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. Those prayers that we know were so poor are cared for as something of value. They are put in golden bowls, and with them is mixed the Much Incense of the merits of our Lord.” ~Amy Carmichael