Jasmine, Gardenia, Evening Primrose, Easter Lily, Lavender, Begonia, and Double Delight Rose—What do all of these beautiful flowers have in common? Color? Size? Purpose?

The answer is fragrance.

Each one of these flowers produces a fragrance that is pleasing to our senses, a fragrance that will bring joy to an off day or an unpleasant condition.

We all love to smell things that have a sweet fragrance.

In Psalm 141:2, David cried out to the Lord, saying, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”

David understood that the prayers he was offering up to the Lord were a sweet fragrance…that of incense. He wanted them to be as consistent and regular as the lighting of incense that took place in the Temple.

In Exodus 30:7, the Lord says “Aaron shall burn on it [the Altar of Incense, which was the last stop before the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies] sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.”

The priests were to stand two times a day before the inner veil of the temple and burn incense so that the smoke would carry into the Holy of Holies and be swept into the very nostrils of God. The aroma represented the prayers of the people—all that had ever been and would be prayed from the hearts of the saints.

In Revelation 8:3–4, we read that in the heavenly temple, an angel “having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.”

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are among the saints. Your prayers are the incense. And the fragrance they bring is a blessing to the Lord.

When we pray, when we intercede, when we plead with the Lord on behalf of our friends and family, with perpetuity and with consistency, this will bless the Lord. It will be a sweet-smelling aroma to Him. God is a god who loves to hear from His children—and who loves to answer our prayers.

Let’s take time to intercede on behalf of those we love, family and friends, even now.