What does the last book of the Bible say about prayer

When you ask yourself how God receives your prayers, turn to Apocalypse.

Sometimes you may feel that your prayers are going nowhere. As if God blocked your number, so to speak. But the last book of the Bible says otherwise.

The first seven chapters of The Revelation describe a vision - a "revelation" - that can safely be called cacophonic. There is a loud voice like a trumpet, a voice like the roar of a waterfall. We hear praise, correction and promises dictated to seven churches. Thunder rumbles and resounds. Four heavenly creatures cry out repeatedly: "Holy, holy, holy". Twenty-four elders sing a hymn of praise. A powerful angel shouts. Thousands of angels sing very high praise to the Lamb, until they join the voice of every creature in heaven and on earth. Louder voices. Furious horses. Shouts of violent martyrs. Earthquake. Avalanches. Yell out. An innumerable multitude of redeemed, worshiping and singing in full voice.

But chapter eight begins, "When [an angel] opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour" (Revelation 8: 1, NIV).

Silence.

What? What is that about?

It is a silence of anticipation. Of expectation. Of enthusiasm. Because what happens next is prayer. The prayers of the saints. Yours and mine.

John saw seven angels appear, each with a shofar. Then:

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stopped at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. (Revelation 8: 3-4, NIV)

That's why paradise has become silent. This is how heaven receives prayer. Your prayers

The angel's thurible is golden because of the value of his task. There was nothing more precious to the mind of the first century than gold, and there is nothing more precious in the economy of the kingdom of God than prayer.

Note also that the angel was given "a lot of incense" to offer along with the prayers, purifying them and ensuring their acceptability before the throne of God. In the ancient world, incense was expensive. So the image of "very" heavenly incense - as opposed to a bit and in opposition to the earthly genre - indicates an impressive investment.

There may be another reason why the angel was given "a lot of incense" to offer. Incense was to be mixed with "the prayers of all the saints": eloquent and upright prayers, as well as imperfect prayers, prayers offered in weakness and incomplete or incorrect prayers. My prayers (which must require incense mounds). Your prayers are offered with all the rest and purified with "much" heavenly incense.

And the blended incense and prayers "rose before God from the hand of the angel." Don't miss the picture. We habitually think in terms of God by listening to our prayers (and sometimes we imagine that he has not listened). But the image of Revelation 8: 4 involves more than hearing. Hand delivered by an angel, the smoke and the smell of incense mingled with the prayers, so that God saw them, smelled them, heard them, inhaled them. All of them. Perhaps in a nicer, more complete way than you have ever dared to imagine.

Here is how your prayers are appreciated in heaven and how your loving and royal Father receives your prayers.