Our Prayers Are as Incense
Prayer is a powerful way to help our spiritual growth move forward. We know God is attentive to our prayer. But if we know God is attentive to our prayers, the question still remains: How does God feel about our prayers?
As he hears the words of our mouths and hearts, what is he thinking? Does God like what he hears? Does God cringe at what we’re saying? As we pray, is God rejoicing? Or is he wishing that we would just be quiet and stop bothering him?
Our tendency, when praying, is to believe that God feels a certain way about our prayers because of a predisposed attitude about what we say. Most people we talk with respond to what we say based on the content of what we say. If they like what we say, then they are pleased. If they don’t like what we say, then they tend to be displeased.
Our tendency is to take this same perspective and apply it to God’s thoughts. Our tendency is to think if God likes the content of our prayers he is happy with our prayers. Likewise, if God does not like the content, our tendency is to believe he is displeased with our prayers. It is difficult to pray under these circumstances because every prayer becomes an attempt to say what we think will please God instead of simply talking with him.
Fortunately, the Bible clearly indicates that God’s feelings about our prayers are directly related to the fact that we are praying. Simply put, God always likes it when we pray. This thought first occurs in Psalm 141:1-2.
“I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
The Psalmist is calling for the Lord to come quickly to him when he calls. He asks that his prayer be set before God as incense. This is because he desperately wants God to be pleased with his prayers. Incense carries a pleasing aroma. The Psalmist wants his prayers to be as the pleasing aroma of incense to God.
In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John is describing a scene that he is watching from heaven. In this dream there is a throne, and the Lamb of God (who is Jesus) is standing at the center of the throne. In the room, four living creatures and the elders surround Jesus. Each elder is also holding a golden bowl full of incense. The incense is the prayer of God’s people.
Revelation 5:8: “And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.”
The implication is that all the prayers of God’s people are pleasing in the sight of God. These prayers are not pleasing because of their content, but because of the fact that the person praying has prayed. Prayer in and of itself is pleasing to God. Then the content of the prayers is secondary.
This means that when we pray, God is pleased with our prayers – all the time. This helps us understand in part why God is always attentive to our prayers. As a matter of principle, we are attentive to those things that are pleasing to us. As our prayers are pleasing to God, it is natural he would be attentive to them.
It seems that every prayer prayed from every one of God’s people is pleasing to God. Thankfully, God is pleased even if the words are not quite right, or the thoughts a little jumbled. He is pleased when we pray for ourselves, and when we pray for another. Even when we are not sure what to pray, God is still pleased with our efforts. Your prayers are pleasing to God not because of their content, but because they are offered to God in the name of Jesus Christ his Son. Each time you are praying, remember how pleased God is that you are praying at that very moment.
