Silence: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Revelation 8: 1-4

“Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.”

First silence in heaven—holy awe. Then astonishment for us.

Our ragged, jagged, selfish, consumed, grief stricken, angry, penitent, robotic, hopeless, prideful, generic, confused, desperate prayers are accepted from each heart.  Acknowledged—Affirmed.

Then purified by grace.

Holy grace. Holy heart.

Taking our sin filled gasps and mingling them with sanctification.

Holy voice. Holy purpose.

Transforming them into possibilities.

Our bent, broken, hearts and lives and worries and battles, are acknowledged, taken seriously, and purified from false motives and faulty consequences.

To be answered in love’s authority.

Psalm of Worship: Isaiah 55: 3

“Incline your ear, and come to me, listen, so that you may live.

I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

my steadfast, sure love for David.”