Reflection: Censer: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Does knowing that God will purify your prayers encourage you to pray more boldly? Why? Why not?

2.     What impossible prayers have you held back on thinking they are beyond possibility for you?

3.     How will you pray this week in the light of purified prayers? What flashes of lightning do you most need right now?

4.     Will this change your witness in any way? How?

Share: Where have you seen God’s power intervene through prayer most recently?

Censer: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Revelation 8:5

“Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightening, and an earthquake.”

Eugene H. Peterson borrows the phrase “Reversed Thunder” from the poet George Herbert. “Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects. Our earth is shaken daily by it.”

From the very beginning of His public ministry Jesus walked in prayer.

He quoted from scripture; He prayed for immediate needs before Him; He spent long quiet early mornings wrestling in solitude.

We are cocooned by our limited perception of our lives yet under Jesus’ authority our eyes and ears can be opened to possibilities under His power and His purpose.

When we are willing to listen and trust and follow.

“Prayer is as much outer as inner. It is the most practical thing anyone can do. It is not mystical escape, it is historical engagement. Prayer participates in God’s actions. God gathers our cries and our praises, our petitions and intercessions, and uses them.” Eugene H. Peterson

And we are included—invited to participate. Astonishing!

Lord, please keep our hearts listening and humbled to act upon your gift of prayer.  May we stay open to the prompts of your Holy Spirit and respond in faith, especially when we will never see the results.

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

Psalm of Worship: Isaiah 55:4

“See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a

leader and commander for the peoples.”

Mingled: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

            Mingled

           

            Mingled prayers

            with holy incense

            purified by grace

            compassion

            merge together

            wind swept clean

            purpose sanctified

            clarified.

Reflection: Silence: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     What comfort does it give you to know that you can come to prayer upset and angry alongside with penitent and grateful?

2.     Are you willing to let God change any of your prayers into His purpose when the outcome may not be what you hoped for?

3.     In what ways does His mercy affect the consequences you may deserve from another’s prayers towards you?

Share: What seemingly impossible prayer have you seen answered?

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.”

Lukewarm: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

            Lukewarm

           

            Lukewarm

            too tired or too content

            in cushioned fog

            unable to care to commit,

            stagnant.

            Listen! The Lord calls

            to each of us—live

            in His Spirit—His power

            undertake compassion’s

            strength.

            

Reflection: Laodicea: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Is there a part of your life where you feel lukewarm right now?

2.     Do you know why? Or do you want to know why?

3.     What is the salve you need to be anointed with in order to see clearly both the situation and your decisions?

Share: How have you listened for the Lord’s counsel before when lukewarm?