God Answers Prayer

 Reflections on Revelation 8:2-5

Throughout this age, saints give their lives for the word of God and the testimony they give for Jesus as was seen in the fifth seal. The opening of the sixth and seventh seals assured the saints that those martyrs would be remembered: Christ would return to judge the nations and gather the elect. But, what about those who suffer and are not killed? God does not ignore their plight, does he? No, the new vision, a series of seven trumpet blasts, assures suffering saints that they, too, are remembered before God. He hears the prayers of suffering saints throughout this age. Thus, the sounding of the seven trumpets is roughly parallel with the opening of the seven seals.

Model of Jerusalem; Herod's Palace
with the Temple in the Background

The vision of the seven trumpet blasts is introduced with the prayers of the saints ascending before God with the incense which an angel offers on the golden altar. This altar is not the altar of sacrifice from which the martyrs cried out earlier. Instead, it corresponds to the golden altar of incense before the veil in the Holy Place of the temple in Jerusalem. This altar, however, stands before God in the true, heavenly temple not made with hands. An angel, not a descendant of Aaron, serves at this altar. The prayers refer to the prayers of those suffering for their faith in Jesus. Their prayers remind us of the cries of the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 2:23-25). The rising of the incense before God in his heavenly temple assures the saints that God hears their prayers just as he heard the cries of the Israelites.

After the angel offers the incense, he fills the censer with fire from the altar and throws it on the earth, and there is thunder, lightening, and an earthquake (v. 5), which foreshadow the judgments which God will send upon the earth.

Great Distress

Reflections on 1 Sam. 30:1-6

No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.
-- 1 Cor. 10:13 NET

Saul and David lived in the same world and faced similar trials, but one found strength in the Lord and the other did not. The difference was not in God, who is impartial, but in the seeker.

SIMILAR TRIALS. Saul was in “great distress” (1 Sam. 28:15) because he and the Israelite army were facing a formidable Philistine army. At about the same time, David was “greatly distressed” (v. 6) because David had found Ziklag plundered and his family taken captives by a marauding band of Amalekites. Both were under added stress because their men and the families of their men were also at risk. Some of Saul’s officers had deserted him to go to David, and David’s men spoke of stoning him (v. 6). In their distress, both sought the Lord, but only one was strengthened.

ONLY ONE STRENGTHENED. Saul did not find strength in God because he had cut himself off from God by disobedience. He cut himself off from the prophet Samuel when he refused to acknowledge his sin, and he cut himself off from the priests when he murdered an entire family in Nob. Even when he finally sought the Lord in desperation, he was seeking his favor without seeking his will, for he was seeking the Lord in an unauthorized way, through a medium. David, on the other hand, had a dynamic relationship with God. He regularly sought the will of God, and he followed the will of God whether spoken by the prophet Gad or Abiathar the priest. His psalms show that he regularly meditated on God’s words and blessings, and praised God in all circumstances. Consequently, when he sought the Lord, he found strength in him.

Misleading and Repetitious

This is a review of a book I recently read. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

LIVING CLOSE TO GOD WHEN YOU'RE NOT GOOD AT IT by Gene Edwards begins by describing the difficulty of developing an intimacy with God during the course of a work day. He remembers a time when he would return from work and realize that he had not thought of God even once during the course of his work day. He had been, for all practical purposes, a "temporary Christian atheist." Even when Mr. Edwards was working in full-time Christian ministry, he felt a lack of fellowship with his Lord. This early description of human frustration with finding fellowship with God is perhaps the best part of the book. After this, he begins telling how he found that fellowship, and I found this part misleading and overly repetitious.

The book is misleading because Mr. Edwards says that he found that the traditional recommendations of prayer and Bible reading to be of little value, and that books on spiritual formation and the lives of the saints were also of little value because they were also about prayer and Scripture. He says he was a man of action. He could not imagine praying for an hour each day, and he failed to find that Bible reading made him feel any closer to God. He sought other ways, but ironically, and apparently without his awareness, what he discovered to create that fellowship and intimacy with Christ was prayer and Scripture! The reason he failed to notice that he had discovered other ways to read Scripture and to pray, which are actually described in books about prayer and spiritual formation, is because he had several misconceptions.

Misconception #1: A person does not need to read Scripture to be spiritual. What convinced him of this is that illiterate people can be spiritual. That is true enough, but even an illiterate person must hear God's word being read or recited. Whether read or heard, we must do more than recognize a sequence of words. We must be active listeners or readers. As active listeners or readers, we remember or memorize portions (often quite small), meditate on them, listen to God speaking to us in them, recall them in spare moments during the day, and use them appropriately. This active reading and listening is, in fact, what Mr. Edwards recommends, but he does not call it Bible reading.

Misconception #2: Prayers of spiritual giants are always long, often an hour or more. On the contrary, many of the prayers of David and Paul were quite short. Prayer need not be long. We can talk to God during spare moments in a day, as Mr. Edwards suggests, and those short talks with God are indeed prayers even if they are short.

Misconception #3: Prayer is asking, nothing more. Again, Scriptural examples show prayer to be much more than asking. Expressing our praise, awe, and love for God is entirely appropriate in prayer whether spoken silently, whispered, or even sung. Mr. Edwards learned to express his love to Christ in words, and in so doing he was praying whether he calls it praying or not.

So if you are not good at living close to God, don't disparage Bible reading and prayer. If your Bible reading and prayer is not communication with God, you may need to enrich your communication. Study of Scriptural prayers and reading books on spiritual formation may then be useful in helping you find ways to enrich your communication with God. Read in this way, even Mr. Edwards' book may be helpful.