Our Prayer Bowl

I have had a decorative glass bowl in our living room for a long time.  It has been an empty vessel for many of these years.  It was simply used to grace our home, adding some color to the room.

I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but I do know why we began to leave cards in the bowl with a prayer written for someone.  Oh, we had promised our prayers before, and great though those intentions were, we often forgot to pray, or only prayed when we could remember.  It wasn’t intentional.  It was just thoughtless behavior. 

We had come across a scripture in the book of Revelations.  These verses touched our heart and gave us a glimpse of what our prayers mean to our God.

Revelation 5:7-8 NIV

7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

It struck us with awe and joy to think that God accepts our prayers as a worship, as incense was used, curling up into the air, up to the throne of our God.

This made praying take on greater weight to us; this privilege of bringing our thankfulness, our requests, our pleas for healing, our words asking for growth, and for cries for intervention into our loved ones’ lives. 

We included in our bowl special verses of scriptures that touched us.  In the bowl went prayers for our own need for maturity and wisdom for situations we were facing.  There were requests for trust, to grow in faith, to push away fear, and combat worry.

We wanted to build patience as we waited to see how God would work in each person’s heart.  We desired to have the shared joy of answered prayers, as we celebrated together hearing news of a healing, or a repaired relationship that we had been involved in the praying for.

 We hoped that our family and friends would know they could count on us to follow through and keep praying to God for them.

I’m so glad that we started this work.

We have been so blessed to have shared in prayer to a merciful God, who treasures all our words, all our thoughts, and all our hearts cries.