Read Revelation 8:1–5
What does prayer do? If you are new to faith or new to prayer, speaking your prayers before God can sometimes feel like you are just talking to a wall. You pour out your heart audibly, and you do not get an audible response. That assumes you even pray out loud. If you think or write your prayers, sometimes it is hard to convince yourself that God is aware of your prayers at all. Even for those who have had strong prayer lives for decades, it is easy to forget how powerful and important prayer is—especially if you have been in a particularly long season of unanswered prayers.
Today’s passage is a remedy against that. It is a reminder that God does hear our prayers, and they do have real effects. In fact, they are one of the primary means God uses to move the history of salvation along. The prayers of the saints are a necessary part of the offering the angel brings before God as the story of Revelation unfolds.
Now, at this point, you might be thinking, “But who are the saints? Whose prayers are these?” In a narrow sense, these are probably the martyred saints we saw in Revelation 6:9–11, who were crying out for justice. In a broader sense, when the New Testament talks about saints, it is not referring to an especially holy class of Christians or an exclusive club requiring special admission. It is talking about all Believers. The word translates literally as “holy ones,” and we are called to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15–16). So, whose prayers are these that are actually reaching God? Who is able to have an audience with the Creator of all things? If you have placed your faith in Jesus, it is you. So be encouraged that your prayers are not in vain, even if they seem unanswered.
