BY ISMERAI ORTIZ
In an increasingly self-reliant society, asking for something is not something a lot of people like to do. Mostly, we choose to figure things out for ourselves or to just suffer in silence. I have suffered a lot in college with this mentality, both in my academics and in my social life. Yet I find that this silence is present not just in the way I interact with my career, school, family, and other things, but also in the way I interact with God.
So how do we interact with God? There are many ways, which include worship, reading the Word, silence, interacting with His creation, and many more. However, in this piece, I will focus on what Revelation 8 tells us about our prayers. In our prayers, we thank God, but we also ask for things - we ask for forgiveness, for guidance, for rest, for good grades and good jobs. When I was young, I would pray mainly to ask God for good grades or something of the sort. However, as I got older, I felt increasingly unsure and uncomfortable with asking things from God because it felt like I was demanding something from Him. And who was I to demand something from God?
Even more, while I understood that prayer was a sacred time with God, the importance of this time made me feel like my prayers should be eloquent and have a deep recognition of God’s power in prayer. For me, this recognition of God’s power had meant that there were things I should ask for in my prayers – the bigger and more important things – and things I should not. I felt the need to censor my prayers and not ask God for the little things because I thought they didn’t matter as much as other prayers. My prayers did not feel eloquent or worthy or wise enough to be offered up to such a powerful God. I had made a distinction between what I thought were worthy and unworthy prayers, for I did not recognize that God has the power to take imperfect prayers and make them perfect:
“3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” Revelation 8:3-4
In our study of Revelation, we considered the possibility that when our prayers are offered with incense on the golden altar before the throne, our prayers are made perfect with the smoke of incense as they rise to God. There are no prayers unworthy to be offered up to God. Even when my heart questions the importance of my prayers, I am reminded that “God is greater than our heart” (1 John 3:20). In the same way, God’s power in the incense with which our prayers are mixed is greater than our small and imperfect prayers. My understanding of God’s power had previously moved me to not pray my seemingly small and ineloquent prayers, but this passage reminds me that there is no prayer too inadequate or small for the Lord.
We have Jesus as our intermediary, and although it is awkward to pray for things that feel like they would be insignificant in the eyes of God, just know that your prayers, even if spoken ineloquently and appear small, are made perfect and complete by Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray so that our prayers can reach God in heaven.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you for this message God, that tells me no prayer is unworthy to be brought to you, because you make them perfect. Thank you God, for listening to each and every one of my worries, joys, desires, and reflections. God, help me bring everything to you in prayer, from the smallest joy, to the biggest worry. I thank you for everything you do for us.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.