We come now to the last of our seven reasons. In many ways it is the most compelling if only because it is not linked to any sort of earthly result. It is this: prayer itself is inherently valuable to God. In other words, whether we ever see any answers (and we will) and whether we ever derive any personal benefit (and we will), God views prayer standing alone with an incomprehensible value.
Two wonderful demonstrations of this are found in Hebrews 7:25 and Revelation 5:8. In the first passage the writer informs us of the occupation and passion of the Lord Jesus since His ascension: “...Since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Think of it: “He always lives to make Intercession.” S.D. Gordon, amazed, put it this way in summing up the life of Christ: “Thirty years of living, thirty years of serving, one tremendous act of dying, and two thousand years of prayer. What an emphasis on prayer!” Prayer, then, is so important to the Lord that it has been perhaps the chief activity of Christ since He bodily left our planet. God obviously values it in a way we usually do not.
The second passage is equally strong. In Revelation 5, we are admitted to a rare view of heaven’s throne room. We do not have many illustrative descriptions of heaven, but this is one of the most vivid. In the tableau, we see the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, the Lamb (Christ), and God the Father.
The book of the Judgement of God is being given to the Lamb, and the verse reads: “And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints [Ital. added].”
In heaven, incense is prayer. What is incense used for? It is used for fragrance, for the beauty of perfume. Two of the gifts from the Magi at Christ’s birth were incense. The thrust of this verse is, when God chooses the fragrance - the perfume, the perfect aroma of His heaven - it is the fragrance of prayer.
Consider that there were other choices He could have made. He could have used the perfume of service, or of Bible Study, or of witnessing, or of hard work, or of tithing, or of church attendance, or any one of a number of wonderful Christian activities. Yet, in His perfect wisdom He chose prayer.
Perhaps He chose it because in virtually all of the other disciplines there are so many differences among humans in gifting, strengths, energy, etc. But in prayer, we all, regardless of our differences, have equal access to Him and equal love and grace and power from Him at our disposal.
In any case, when we enter heaven for the first time and (no doubt) fall on our faces before Him, the aroma we will notice will be that of intercession. All of which makes us ask: “If God values prayer that much, how much do I value it?” Certainly, I should place it at a more central point in my life than I usually do.
There they are. Seven (of many) reasons for us to give much more thought and attention to prayer than is common among Christians. Even in this writing, I found myself pausing often to take prayer action based upon these motivations. I hope the reading affected you in a similar way.
Reprinted by permission Dan Hayes.
Dan Hayes is the Executive Director of Atlanta Community Ministries, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization that consists of nearly 40 volunteer social service projects and programs
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