Tcb (Taking Care Of Business) - Pt. 3 - Incense And Oil

b. Pray often and persistently – morning and night – coming back again and again.

Too often the only time we pray is over a meal or at church. This altar teaches us that we have a duty to constantly be in prayer. We should be people of prayer. In fact, Paul exhorts us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. The word “ceasing” in the Greek carries the idea of “uninterrupted or permanent.” Every morning and evening they had a duty to stop and pray. Maybe our problem is that we don’t have a visible reminder to stop and pray. I want to encourage you to stop by the altar of prayer on a daily basis. In your car . . . pray. At your desk . . . pray. Playing ball . . . pray.

We have relegated prayer to something that requires us to be at a physical altar on our knees. It is something we do at a particular place – church and then while there we don’t always pray we listen to others pray and count them as our prayers. When as priests we must be people of prayer that pray continually.

We must follow example of high priest – Jesus. Hebrews 7 teaches us that He liveth to make intercession for us. His life revolves around praying for us. He is constantly praying. We must become a priesthood of prayers. It can’t just be the little old ladies who know how to pray. We must all know how to and practice constant and daily prayer!

b. Prayer saturated – As the priests would burn this incense the scent of that incense would perfume their clothing. In fact, history teaches us that the family that was in charge of making the incense were so saturated by the smell of this incense that their daughters didn’t have to wear any perfume because they were so permanently saturated by this smell.

What I am saying and what I believe this teaches us is that we should be in prayer so often that we are marked by those prayers. People who come into contact with us should notice a difference in how we handle stress and how we handle turmoil and how we handle tragedy. Everywhere we go a fragrance should come off of our lives. They should be able to smell God on you! Sniff your neighbor. Do you smell God or is all you smell right guard, or obsession, or the latest perfume from Dillard’s?

Think about this, your life is to be so saturated by the presence of God that you change the smell of every situation you walk into. Haven’t you met someone like that? When they walk into the room the atmosphere changes? That is our duty as priests and that can only be accomplished as we spend time in prayer!

c. Pray with passion – Incense with no coals doesn’t do anything. The incense would be placed on coals brought from the Brazen Altar. It took hot coals to burn the incense. Teaching us that we must pray with passion. Not some regimented dead, lifeless type of prayer. I am calling you to passionate prayer. Prayer where you are honest. Prayer where you are transparent and vulnerable. Gut level, gut wrenching, down to earth dialogue with God. He can handle it. It is that type of prayer that produces results. It isn’t the programmed, doctored up for the audience, fancy prayer that brings change. James says it is the “Fervent” prayer that availeth much. The word “Fervent” means red hot.