October 15, 2024
When building the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Moses was instructed to build an altar for the burning of incense. It was strategically outside the veil of the temple that entered into the Holy of Holies. Positioned there, the priest who burned the incense daily couldn't see into the Holy of Holies (which was forbidden), but he directed his prayers to God.
This incense was to be offered in the morning and evening and continued always before the Lord. Think of the sweet smell of this incense, these prayers, filling God’s presence with the humble, constant heart worship of His children.
Moreover, you shall make an altar as a place for burning incense ... Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generation. (Exodus 30:1, 7-8)
UNCEASING PRAYER
Throughout scripture, the symbol of incense represents genuine prayer. The Tabernacle in the wilderness and later the Temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem were filled with this fragrance, indicating God’s desire to dwell with us and our unbelievable privilege to meet with Him all day, every day.
When Christ took John in a vision to see what was in heaven and what would come, this ascending incense was revealed for what it was.
When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (Revelation 5:8)
Our prayers matter to us because they are the means by which we commune with the One who made us and loves us with an everlasting love. But they also matter to God. They mattered in the Old Testament and the New, and they matter right now. They are a blessing to Him, like sweet incense rising, and they accomplish things that can only be done through the privilege of prayer.
Are you praying today? Morning and evening, are you filling the throne room of heaven with your prayers? There are things God intends to accomplish through prayer that He will not accomplish in any other way. And beyond that, He has designed for us to live in unceasing communion with Him.
MORNING AND EVENING
Cultivate the practice of morning and even prayer. Begin and end your waking hours in communion with Him. Enter the Throne room (made accesible through Christ’s death and resurrection) and come boldly but humbly before His Throne. Turn your attention to Him. Listen to Him. Worship Him.
And then learn the art of unceasing prayer about everything throughout the day. If you do, your life will carry the fragrance of His presence as you walk before others in a world that carries the dark smell of sin and death. And the incense of your prayers will be a sweet-smelling fragrance before the kind and worthy Father you serve.
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