The Prayer that Reaches the Lord
(Rev 8:1 ~ 5)
After giving us a series of judgment messages, God becomes silent in order to listen to our prayer. How can we pray the prayer that reaches the Lord?
1. We need to experience Gods silence. Before the Lord broke the 7th seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. It was Gods silence. Isnt it so with our life? In the novel, Silence, God answered the question of why he kept silent while Christians were dying for their faith, 'I was with them in every minute of their suffering.' Woes also come from God. God leads us to salvation not only by coddling us but also by standing against us. Gods half hour silence is the last expression of his love. Taking his half an hour silence as eternal one, we say 'God does not exist.' The Israelites didnt fall mentally despite the terrible persecution of Rome because they prayed in the face of Gods silence. We need to seek Gods silence with Him, not sit in a mute vacuum without Him.
2. We need to offer our prayer in the golden censor. What are the prayers that will be offered in the in his golden censor?
amp#9312 Its the prayer of His fairness and justice. Gods criteria for ruling the world is fairness and justice. Because of our sinful nature, we tend to be biased. Gods people recognize that they are biased and unfair under all circumstances. The prayer that will be offered in the golden censor is the one believing that God deals with us with his fairness. The Israelites had to notice Gods fairness and their injustice in their prayer while their fellow people were dying under the Roman persecution. Prayer is not always about seeing others suddenly changed, having a good income, or our childs academic growth. Its about watching our family taking all the trouble for us to see our sins. God listens to every word of our prayer and answers it according to the scale of our faith. Yet, it takes some time for us to offer the prayer of fairness and justice.
amp#9313 Its our desperate and spontaneous prayer. A British pastor said nothing but 'Oh, Lord,' terrified while his wife was having a brain surgery to remove a tumor. The only thing that we can do in our worst time is to pray. The moment is 'half an hour.' Yet we regard it as eternal. We often say that we have been suffering throughout our life, but actually it was half an hour, the best time for our desperate prayer. During this moment, we can offer our desperate prayer as weve never done and never will do. Gods silence is a blessing to us.
amp#9314 Its our sincere prayer. We will experience the presence of the Holy Spirit when we pray 'Lord, have mercy on us' whether in our mealtime, in the morning, or before we go to bed. We will listen to Gods voice by reading the Scripture as our personal intercourse with God. When we have an intimate relationship with God, we will be able to remain calm even in our emergency. In order to be devoted to prayer, we need to start with basic practice. We just need to say, 'Lord, Have mercy on me at a fixed time and in a certain formula (Father God, thank you, forgive me, I believe, Amen etc.). And we need to join in public worship services, intercessory prayer meeting, and other special prayers. By joining this external prayer training, we feel that we also need internal prayer training. In the 5th century, Benedictines used to pray with the Bible verses they meditated on beforehand, from which Bible meditation could be said to originate. Meditation is listening to Gods voice by pondering over the Scripture and personally encountering it. When praying, we need to ask to ourselves, 'What is Gods will?' Small group meetings are the best place for our prayer training and sharing our prayer requests is the best way of practicing it.
amp#9315 The goal of our prayer is sharing the gospel with others. Paul said that his prison was the very circumstance where he could share the gospel. The early Christians were finally able to evangelize Rome because of their endurance in prayer even in their persecution. Staying well in our prison, where we often ask When will this end?' is actually the best way to save our time. If we fail to do that, hating and being afraid of our Rome, we are facing Judgment. How can we spread the gospel being caught in the prison of our own ego, the obstacle of evangelism?
3. Our prayer that reaches the Lord accompanies His judgment. Gods judgment is actually his salvation. The fate of the whole world is actually up to Christians prayer. We need to pray 'Lord, Im bent upon money,' instead of saying 'Why does my husband earn little money?' God will enable us to focus on the Lord by sending his lightning and earthquakes to the cause of our complaints. Then our grumbling will disappear and our Rome will be changed. Thats the process of our prayer that invokes Gods judgment. When we die physically, we survive spiritually. We need to pray that our Rome will believe in Jesus. We often feel insecure even while praying because we dont understand the Word. Thats why God puts us in our prison of silence where we can pray a right prayer. By watching our depravity, deviation, and disgrace, we can offer our prayer that reaches the Lord. Till that moment, God will send woes to us.
Heres the testimony from one of our deacons. He wrote a sort of Wooridle version of petition for his financial relief to a judge, pouring out what he really wanted to say with honesty. 'Im disappointed with my miserable situation after all my desperate effort to chase money. However, this is what I brought on myself. All I can do is now is apologize to my debtors for their loss caused by my wrong desire.' This letter brought a miracle. He was able to get a remission. Even a human judge showed his mercy on him. How much more will our Lord show his grace? Thus, we need to set aside our rhetoric and pray with a truthful heart, looking at our detestable nature. The fruit of our recovery should be evangelism. The final touch of our prayer that reaches the Lord should be 'Lord, I will spread the gospel and Ill live for your glory. Help me find my mission in this trial!'
The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angels hand (Rev 8:4).
