When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood wat 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, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 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 lightning, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:1-5 ESV).
Prayers are a fitting response to the command “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Our prayers are expressions of faith in God’s promise to be “our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
The picture here invites us to see that God always hears our prayers. “The prayers of all God’s people” include the prayers of children, of people just learning to pray, and of believers who have prayed for many years.
There have been many times when I wondered if God was truly listening to my prayers. More often than not those were the times when the object of my prayers was not in alignment with the will of God; however, some of the time I have felt a silence in response to those prayers I knew to be perfectly aligned with God’s purpose. I was proven wrong as time unfolded and God worked His purpose in a different time than I imagined.
Like the smoke of incense which slowly drifts through the room slowly filling it with its fragrance, so it is with God’s answer to our prayers. Though the timing may not be what we expect, God always answers our prayers!