Prayer Incense

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.

Revelation 5:8

In Revelation chapters 4 and 5 we are caught up in a vision with the Apostle John and are taken up into Heaven where we are given a glimpse inside the throne room. We see lots of interesting things there. We see God on His throne surrounded by four living creatures and by 24 elders on smaller thrones. These creatures and these elders praise God and declare His glory day and night without ceasing. 

But in Revelation 5:8 we are given this interesting little detail that the incense of heaven is the prayers of the saints. You remember what incense are don't you? The sweet smelling stuff you burn. Just as the aroma of incense wafts upward and gives off a pleasing aroma as it burns, so too your prayers waft upward to heaven and are pleasing to God. Our prayers are treasured up in Heaven to be used to bring God glory!

If your prayers were replayed and poured out in Heaven, would they bring glory to God? If not, then you should change the way you pray. Don't just pray "give me, give me, give me" all the time. Sometimes you should pray "forgive me." Take the time to confess specific sins. Often you should pray "thank you." Take the time to consider how much God has blessed you and thank Him for it. And specifically in light of this passage of Scripture, you should make every effort to pray prayers of praise and adoration. You should pray "I love you" prayers and "You are awesome" prayers. Prayer should be a form of worship not just requests. So take time to worship God in prayer. Tell Him how great He is. Tell Him how much you love Him. Glorify God in prayer!

Cain's Sinful Heart

For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Matthew 15:19

Sin doesn't originate outside of you (with temptation) but from within your own wicked heart (compare James 1:13-15). So, you can't blame anyone else when you sin because the battlefield on which you win or lose the battle against sin is inside yourself.

In Greek the word for 'heart' in Matthew 15:19 doesn't just mean the emotional part of yourself, but your passions, desires, and thoughts as well. It could be translated as 'soul.' That means that you lose the battle against sinful thoughts, attitudes, and feelings long before you lose the battle against sinful acts.

 

I believe we find this illustrated in the first murder. Genesis 4:8 says, "Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let’s go out to the field.' While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." The text doesn't explicitly say that Cain's act was pre-meditated, but that seems to be the clear implication. It certainly reads like Cain intentionally lured his brother out to a remote place with the intention of killing him and hiding his body. 

Who knows how many times Cain thought about killing his brother before he actually did it? Who knows how many different ways of murdering Abel he considered before landing on a specific method? Or who know how many times Cain played the murder out in his mind before he acted on it? We don't know. But unless we're to believe that Cain spontaneously killed his brother after inviting him out to the field for no particular reason, we have to assume that Cain thought this through. If this is true, then Cain gave in to sin and indulged in sinful and murderous thoughts and attitudes towards his brother long before he ever raised his hand against him. 

What a powerful example of the truth Jesus teaches! When you are angry, be very careful what you allow yourself to think on or fantasize about. Be careful what thoughts you fill your mind with. Be careful what feelings you indulge or dwell on. Because sin begins in your heart and in your mind. If you lose the fight against sinful thoughts, desires and feelings, then you will never win the battle against sinful actions.

Dust to Dust (W.o.W. Rewind)

 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7

History has proven that men are often more prone to arrogance than to humility. Thus, almost immediately after our Lord tells us of our role in creation (see Genesis 1:26-30 and last week's post), how being made in His image we are to rule over the world as His vice-regents, He humbles us by reminding us what we are truly made of... dust. We have been chosen by God to rule over this world not because of any inherent goodness or regal quality in us, but rather by an extra dispensation of His grace to us.

 

Psalm 103:13-16 makes the point this way,

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 

Reading that passage you get the idea that David is saying that we are but dust. One breath of the Lord's nostrils and we would disperse to the ends of the earth. Thus, our loving Father is gentle in correcting us for He (better than anyone else) knows how fragile we are.

Again Ecclesiastes 3:18-20 frames the point slightly differently saying,

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

We are no better than the animals that God has set us over. We are both made from the dust and when we die we return to the dust the same as they do.

What does all this mean? Well...it means this: Humble yourself before the Lord and remember that you are but dust. All that you have, He has given you. You haven't earned any of it. He has freely given it all. So when you enter His presence in prayer or worship do so with a humble spirit. But in your humility never forget our great hope.

The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man (I Corinthians 15:47-49).

One day the Christian will be made like Christ. We are dust now, but one day we will have heavenly bodies. We will be made like Christ. That is our hope and to that end we strive to be increasingly conformed into His image day by day.

For further reading...

• II Chronicles 33:1-20: Check out how Manasseh humbled himself before God and how seriously the Lord took his humility.
• Ecclesiastes 5:1-2: Let your words be few.
• I Corinthians 15: Check out what our heavenly bodies will be like.
• Romans 8:29: Destined to be conformed into the image of Christ.

The Importance of Awe

Your wickedness will punish you;

your backsliding will rebuke you.

Consider then and realize

how evil and bitter it is for you

when you forsake the Lord your God

and have no awe of me,”

declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

Jeremiah 2:19

In Jeremiah chapter two God confronts His people with their sin. They have acted like an adulterous wife and turned their backs on God to run after idols. In verse 19 God connects Israel's sin with a complete loss of awe or fear. And before I read this verse the other day, I never understood how important worship is in the life of a believer. 

Worship is simply thinking about who God is and then responding to His excellency. All forms of worship have this in common. When we worship God in song, we sing of His holiness, His grace, His power, His wonderful actions in history, and so much more. When we worship Him in prayer, we bow down in humble adoration of who He is. When we speak words of praise about Him, what do we speak about but His faithful deeds? All these forms of worship are essentially the same. We think about how great God is and then responding to it. 

This is why true worship always gives rise to an awe or a holy fear in our hearts. When we grasp even a glimpse of who God really is we are in awe. And what I never understood before is the role that this awe or fear plays in our lives. I never realized what a beneficial side effect worship could have on us. 

The awe or holy fear of God that worship stirs up in our hearts helps keep us away from sin. True worship helps prevent sin in our lives, because it gives birth to awe and fear in our heart and these naturally fight against willful sin. 

So take some time today to attack the sin in your life by cultivating worship. Think about who He really is, how big He is, how powerful He is, how good is. Grasp just how far beyond your comprehension He is. Sit in awe of Him. Fear Him. And then run toward Him and away from your sin.