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.
Revelation 5:8

According to my mother, I was born talking. She loves to tell about the day she dressed me up in frilly pink dress, scraped my hair into two pig tails–though I dubbed them wiggle tails–and carried me into a store. The clerk made a great fuss, pinching my cheeks and cooing, until I piped up. “Lady, I know I’m cute.”

Abashed, the clerk said she didn’t think I could talk. Mom shifted me from one hip to the other and said, “She can’t walk yet, but she sure can talk.”

I like to think of my ability as a gift from God. A gift I continue using early and often by starting each day in prayer. I talk to God about the day to come, confess my sins, ask forgiveness (those two take quite a while), and share my worries. I spend much of the time asking him to meet the spiritual and physical needs of friends and family members who are sick, hurting, grieving, or wandering away from him. For good measure, I throw in some people whose lives have briefly intersected with mine.

Some of these people have been in my prayers for months. Years. Decades. Even though I lost track of many of them long ago. I keep praying for them because, if my brief glimpse of their lives is any indication, they are lost and have no one else praying for them. I have no idea if my prayers have accomplished anything. Or if they ever will. But since God endowed me with an abundance of words, praying for them seems to be a good way to share my gift of gab.

Then, during a Sunday school class in February, a phrase about prayer jumped out of the Bible and into my heart. Revelation 5:8 says that John saw the elders in heaven bowing before the Lamb of God. Each elder held two things. First a harp, which should encourage worshipers to sing to God, since what’s good enough to occupy us for eternity in heaven is certainly worthy of our time on earth. Second, the elders held golden bowls of incense which are the prayers of the saints.

Talk about encouragement to pray. Why would we all not raise our petitions to God when Scripture says that the prayers of the saints (that’s you and me and all Christ followers) are already in heaven? They are gathered in golden bowls. Offered as incense. Placed at the feet of Jesus by fellow believers who’ve gone before us.

To think that the prayers we’ve already offered for our friends, family, and neighbors, and in some cases strangers, are before Jesus this very minute is a source of great hope. We can hope that our prayers, raised out of compassion and loving concern for those God has placed in our lives, will be answered in his perfect time in marvelous ways we cannot imagine or conceive. The knowledge that we serve such a gracious God is motivation to lift our offering of prayer like golden incense rising to the Father and to the Lamb. Even when we aren’t sure what words to use. That’s rarely a problem for me, but if it is for you, don’t worry. Instead, call me. God’s given me more than a lifetime’s worth of words. I’d love to share them with you.