“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Revelation
8:1 (NIV)
The
discouragement on my friend’s face was visible the minute she stepped out of
her car and walked up to meet me on the porch. She had called earlier and asked
if she could come by.
“What’s going
on?” I asked her as I gave her a hug and invited her into the living room. She
shook her head. “I just need to talk. I am so frustrated right now, all I want
to do is cry” she continued and then shared a situation that, in spite of her
prayers for several years, only seemed to have become worse and not better.
“I’m beginning
to think that, no matter how much I pray, it’s not going to change a thing.
It’s almost like whatever is going to happen will happen, prayer or not,” she
confessed through tears of discouragement.
Have you ever
felt that way? Uh huh. Me, too. But Revelation 8:1 gives us a totally different
picture about how much prayer means to God. In Chapter 8 of Revelation, John is
describing what he is seeing in heaven after the seals have been broken on the
scrolls that tell about human sin, violence and God’s judgment. And then he
shares in verse 1 that “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Silence in
heaven? We know there is praising and singing and activity without end and yet
John says heaven was completely quiet for 30 minutes. Why? What happened? If
you continue reading verses 1 through 5, you will find that the reason it is
totally silent is that someone is praying and all of heaven has stopped so the
prayers of the righteous can be lifted up before God.
I know we get
caught up in looking at everything happening around us and wonder “Do my
prayers really matter? Do they matter to God? Does He even hear me?”
They matter. And in Revelation
they matter enough to God that He stops everything going on in heaven for 30
minutes so prayers can be lifted before Him. Our prayers are heard. And they
are answered.
So don’t stop
praying! Don’t stop going before the Lord with your concerns and problems and
please don’t stop lifting up your unsaved loved ones to Him. Your requests are
important enough to the Almighty Creator that He commands silence in heaven
just for you.
Father, thank you for listening to our
prayers because the requests and praises of your children are important to you.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Reflect
- Have
you ever felt like your prayers weren’t really being heard by God?
- When
that happened, did you keep praying or decide it didn’t really matter?
Apply
- Make a
daily time – if even just for a few minutes – when you are silent before
the Lord.
- Then
lift your prayers and praises to Him, knowing that He commands silence
because of the importance of your prayers to Him.
Power
- Revelation
8:1 (NIV) “When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour.”
- Psalm
145:18-19 (NIV) “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call
on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears
their cry and saves them.”
- Proverbs
15:29 (NIV) “The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of
the righteous.”
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