July 2, 2026

Revelation 5: 8 (NIV)

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

The prayers of God’s people are as sweet to Him as incense.*

Incense was an important part of worship in the tabernacle. So important that when God gave Moses the recipe, he warned him that concocting a batch for your own pleasure would result in your being “cut off” from your people (Exodus 30: 34-38). The Old Testament is full of references to incense. David’s prayer in Psalm 141: 2 is a poetic picture of its symbolism: “May my prayer be set before you like incense.” Like God’s favorite fragrance, our prayers rise up to Heaven for his pleasure.

Picture a bowl in Heaven. It’s got your name on it. Every time you pray, your prayers go in the bowl. What do those prayers smell like? I have to admit that my whiney selfish prayers probably don’t smell so sweet. What are the ingredients for a sweet-smelling prayer? I believe the formula would include qualities such as humility; faith; affection; fervency.* Since discovering this verse, I have been more intentional in offering prayers of praise and intercession. They smell SO good!

There is an exquisite beauty in this thought that true prayer is fragrance to God. The pleadings and supplications of His people on the earth rise from lowly homes, from sick rooms, from darkened chambers of grief where loved ones kneel beside their dead, from humble sanctuaries, from stately cathedrals, and are wafted up before God as the breath of flowers is wafted to us in summer days, sweet fields and fragrant gardens. And God “smells a sweet savour.” Prayer is perfume to Him.*

July 1, 2026

Revelation 3: 17, 18 (NIV)

“You say, ‘I am rich . . . and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold . . . so you can become rich; and white clothes . . . so you can cover your nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

Self-sufficiency is the fatal danger of a lukewarm state.*

Remember the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes? Some con men convinced everyone in the kingdom that they could fashion a new wardrobe for the emperor that only the wisest people could see. No one wanted to be thought stupid so everyone pretended to admire the emperor’s outfit as he paraded around town, until some child, too young to be concerned about what others thought, calls out, “But he’s not wearing any clothes!”

Satan, the world’s greatest con man, had convinced the church members at Laodicea that they were rich and didn’t need a thing. “They had evidently mistaken ‘the good life’ for the righteous life.”* God says to them, through his revelation to John: Not only are you not rich, you are pathetic, blind, and naked. They professed to be Christians but in their rampant materialism they failed to notice that they were “out of communion with Christ.”*

The Laodiceans are not the only ones who ever fell for Satan’s scams. Theirs is the condition of all who are trusting in something other than Jesus Christ. But just as “self-sufficient Laodicea”* is called to repentance (verse 19), God also offers us the chance to cover our nakedness, become rich, and to see again. Learn to value the things that God values – such as faith refined by fire; purity; and spiritual discernment.

The appearance of affluence and self-sufficiency can often blind us to deeper spiritual needs.*