Our Prayers Reach God

Exodus 37:25a
Then Bezalel made the incense altar of acacia wood.

Hebrews 9:2-4a
There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides.

Hebrews 9:7-8
But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.

For some reason, I didn't realize until today that the incense altar was in the Most Holy Place. I guess it makes sense. The incense represents prayer. Prayer is the way we enter God's presence. Under the old system, only the high priest could enter God's presence only once a year and only after blood was shed.

Under the new system Jesus is now our High Priest who offered his own blood. With his own blood - not the blood of goats and calves - he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Hebrews 9:12. Now we are free to enter God's presence with our prayers anytime day or night. And as God revealed to my best friend a few days ago, our prayers cover more ground than we realize!

I praise you, Lord God! I'm so glad that you hear my prayers!! They are all collected and kept in your presence. I love you so very much!! In Jesus' name, amen.

Hebrews 4:16

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Hebrews 10:19-22

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

MEMORY VERSE

Salvation Not By Works

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Titus 3:5

Salvation Not By Works