Golden Bowls

A long time ago I attended a Bible camp. Our speaker that week was a pilot. He compared the Christian walk to aspects of being a pilot. One lesson he taught us really stood out in my mind. He said a pilot needs to trust their instruments. They can’t rely upon their vision. A pilot can become disorientated up in the sky. Their instruments are their life line. The instrument can tell them how level the plane is. He gave an example of a pilot who was flying upside down, who didn’t feel like he was upside down, but when he looked down at his instruments, he was clearly upside down.

What instruments do we have, as Christians. Well, God’s Word tells us whether we’re upside down in this life. His word tells us what’s really going on, even when we don’t feel like things are going the way we think they are going.

I’ve been thinking about prayer a lot lately. We, as believers, are told to pray without ceasing. We utter our prayers out loud or in our heads, and then what? Does God really hear our prayers? We can’t see God. We can’t touch Him. We can’t hear Him. We pray, but we get no response that our prayers are being heard. I’ve felt that my prayers are not being heard, a few times, in these past few months.

But that’s how I feel. What does God’s instrument (His Word) tell me about the prayers I pray?

“When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Rev. 5:8

If you placed something into a golden bowl, would you view that something as valuable? Where do we find gold? You can find gold in expensive jewelry stores, under lock and key, guarded by cameras and security officers. Try and walk out the door with a gold something or other and find out how valuable gold is. You’d be met with alarm bells, and police officers.

Our prayers are such, that God places them into golden bowls, held by the twenty-four elders. I think that visual tells me a different story than what I am feeling at times. When I feel my prayers are going nowhere, that’s a lie. I need to rely upon God’s instrument that tells me my prayers go into golden bowls. My prayers are valuable. Your prayers are valuable. I can’t look at my circumstances and believe what is not true. I need to believe God’s inerrant word, and He tells me my prayers go into golden bowls.

So friend, when you are discouraged and feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, remind yourself of the golden bowls. That’s where your prayers are going. When I did this, it changed my whole perspective. I can’t look at my circumstances and believe what is not true. I can’t be like the upside down pilot. I need to look to my instruments (God’s Word) and remind myself what is the truth. Our prayers never go willy nilly into the sky. They go into golden bowls. That’s how God feels about our prayers.