And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each of them having a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Rev. 5:8.
The exciting message of this verse is that the worship of heaven includes the prayers of the saints. The prayers of the saints arise from a world very different from the scene John witnesses in heaven. In that world the saints seem to be defeated. Evil appears to reign. But the book of Revelation lifts the gaze of believers up to heavenly places. There the decisive victory has been won, forever crippling evil. Prayer is not just a nice thing to do--it is a link to the mighty, victorious power of heaven.
Before we had children, my wife and I each bought a 10-speed bicycle to enjoy the landscapes of our mountain valley. We rode quite often for a few years, but in the past couple of decades the pressures of family and career turned our attention in other directions, causing us to neglect those bikes. They sit now under the elevated sunroom of our house, a place where they stay dry, but are a little too hard to get to.
Some time ago I crawled under the sunroom and pulled out my red racer, thinking it was about time to take it for a spin. I found that it had quite a bit of rust here and there and the tape had come off one of the handlebars. After 25 years it didn't look very good, but it did seem to roll OK. It still had that pleasant buzzing sound that high-quality bikes make when the wheels turn at a slow pace. While the tires were a little flat and I didn't know where the air pump was, they still had enough air to work.
Taking the bike out for a ride, I headed down the road. Since it was really quite hard to keep it going, I wondered if my leg muscles were out of shape. It just wasn't as much fun as I had remembered biking to be. After a bit I brought the bike back, thinking it might as well go back into hiding for another 20 years. But after some effort I located a pump, injected some new air into those old tires, and tried again. What a surprise! Everything went so much easier. A little air made a very big difference.
It has been said that "prayer is the breath of the soul." Prayer is like the air I put into my bicycle tires. When we try to solve our problems by ourselves, life is truly hard. But prayer vaults our challenges into the throne room of heaven, where no problem is too big to solve, no battle is too hard to win. Thanks to the victory of the Lamb, prayer is the key to victory on earth. Don't leave home without it!
Lord, I don't ask for an easy life. But I do ask that your mighty power will multiply my efforts to extend the victory of the Lamb to everyone I meet.
The exciting message of this verse is that the worship of heaven includes the prayers of the saints. The prayers of the saints arise from a world very different from the scene John witnesses in heaven. In that world the saints seem to be defeated. Evil appears to reign. But the book of Revelation lifts the gaze of believers up to heavenly places. There the decisive victory has been won, forever crippling evil. Prayer is not just a nice thing to do--it is a link to the mighty, victorious power of heaven.
Before we had children, my wife and I each bought a 10-speed bicycle to enjoy the landscapes of our mountain valley. We rode quite often for a few years, but in the past couple of decades the pressures of family and career turned our attention in other directions, causing us to neglect those bikes. They sit now under the elevated sunroom of our house, a place where they stay dry, but are a little too hard to get to.
Some time ago I crawled under the sunroom and pulled out my red racer, thinking it was about time to take it for a spin. I found that it had quite a bit of rust here and there and the tape had come off one of the handlebars. After 25 years it didn't look very good, but it did seem to roll OK. It still had that pleasant buzzing sound that high-quality bikes make when the wheels turn at a slow pace. While the tires were a little flat and I didn't know where the air pump was, they still had enough air to work.
Taking the bike out for a ride, I headed down the road. Since it was really quite hard to keep it going, I wondered if my leg muscles were out of shape. It just wasn't as much fun as I had remembered biking to be. After a bit I brought the bike back, thinking it might as well go back into hiding for another 20 years. But after some effort I located a pump, injected some new air into those old tires, and tried again. What a surprise! Everything went so much easier. A little air made a very big difference.
It has been said that "prayer is the breath of the soul." Prayer is like the air I put into my bicycle tires. When we try to solve our problems by ourselves, life is truly hard. But prayer vaults our challenges into the throne room of heaven, where no problem is too big to solve, no battle is too hard to win. Thanks to the victory of the Lamb, prayer is the key to victory on earth. Don't leave home without it!
Lord, I don't ask for an easy life. But I do ask that your mighty power will multiply my efforts to extend the victory of the Lamb to everyone I meet.
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