Valley Princess

Learning to Love: Day 26

The Altar of Incense

My heart was like a carcass
Charged with a wreaking smell.
My lips were dead to speak the truth, 
But my odor did tell. 
My heart is now like incense1
And burned by Holy Fire.
Its fragrance fills my temple:
My mouth plays like a lyre.
My incense heart, refined by fire,
Is burned by my High Priest.
My perfume fills earth and heaven,
Though my brass bowl is least.
My alabaster body2
Pours out a wealthy prayer
Because the Holy Spirit
Fills my spirit and air.
Though vultures think my incense
The foulest feeling cloud,
My Priest will intercede for me;
They can't see through the shroud.
And what's seen and invisible
Effect and are affected,
My body, soul, my mind, spirit,
Are all goodly infected.
  1. Revelation 8:3
  2. Matthew 26:7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37

Day 26

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I can’t remember the name of the pastor now, but what he wrote stays with me. The power of our prayers is not dependent on ourselves but upon the One in Whose Name we pray, not upon our own merit but upon the work Christ did for us. Many people today pray for something they need or want. The models we have in the Bible for prayer show us that most prayers are about His glory, or they are intercessory or penitent. Our righteousness comes from Christ, and that’s why we’re counted as righteous as we make our requests known to God. James tells us we have great power in our prayers to be healed by confessing our sins and interceding for those who need healing. Our prayer doesn’t have great power as we ask for the car we want, or the vacation we want, or the boyfriend we want, or the birthday we want, or the coffee we want. You just fill in the blank. We have great power in our prayers as we get the log out of our own eye first (Matthew 7:3-5), then see clearly through the eyes of prayer to ask God to remove the speck from our neighbor’s eye.

We have a great privilege and great opportunity to pray to the God of all. Let’s avail ourselves of our duty to ourselves and others, and take this prayer thing seriously. It’s a discipline. Maybe you don’t want to pray much because your mind wanders too much, for example. But to the contrary, that is a reason you need to pray more. Let’s stop wasting our time on praying for temporary things, less important things. It’s time we were about our Father’s business in our prayer life.

If you enjoyed this material, please leave a like or comment on my blog, share, and you can purchase my book, Learning to Love: A Collection of Poetry and 40 Daily Devotions, on Amazon. Until next time, God bless.

Valley Princess Avatar

Published by

Valley Princess
Sara DuVall is a wife and homeschool mom. She lives in the Tennessee Valley of North Alabama with her husband and four children. Originally from the Florida Gulf Coast, she was raised in the church and worked for the church for some time. Sara has a MA in English literature and certificate in technical communication, having work experience in the field of technical communication and technical editing. Her BA is in cultural anthropology and English writing. Sara has been writing poetry since she was about 13 years old. Inspired by a poem written by her great-grandmother, Sara has studied and enjoyed the art of poetry ever since. She is a published short story author in Northwest Florida State College’s Blackwater Review (2006 and 2007). She is also an award-winning short story author at the University of West Florida (2009). She published her first book, Learning to Love: a Collection of Poetry and 40 Daily Devotions, in 2021. The daughter of a choir director and college music teacher with an MA in voice, Sara was regularly exposed to music from an early age. Although she is a far cry from the vocal qualifications of her mother, and although she is not nearly as proficient a pianist as she should be from her tutelage, Sara has maintained her musical background by expressing herself through acoustic and classical guitar and the Native American style flute, composing many of her own songs. Besides writing and music, one of Sara’s favorite work experiences was as assistant curator of the Heritage Museum of Northwest Florida where she got to accession people’s old stuff and guide tours about it. They just don’t make things like they used to.
Categories:

Leave a comment