The Tragedy
The Tragedy of Empty Vials.
“Golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints” (Revelation 5:8).
What is a vial? According to the Webster dictionary, it is “a small closable vessel especially for liquids.” It is a container to put contents in. We all have experienced during the holidays cooking way too much extra food only to have to save it for another day. For a busy mother, she knows that leftovers can be her best friend. If you are like my late mother-in-law, Mom J always stashed things for that “rainy day” and had her kitchen drawers full of extras.
The book of Revelation 5:8, it speaks about “golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.” Our prayers are contained in vials, somehow scooped up by God, and placed away for later use. We also read in Revelation 8:5 how these prayers are “cast into the earth: and there are voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” If God does not use our prayers the moment we speak them, He must do something with them, right? They are stored up in the containers in heaven.
I heard a story about a Christian man who went to pray for a backslider in a hospital suffering an ordeal that almost took his life. The prayer warrior felt to tell him that the prayers of his mother have been stored up for him for many years, and that God has protected him through the years from much worse than this. At that moment, he felt God say to the prayer warrior to tell the backslidden man that he was out of (her) prayers.
It was time for the sick man to pray for himself! HIS VIAL WAS EMPTY. The backslider had to quit relying on the prayers of his mother who had recently passed away. But would he comply? Realizing his protection came from the prayers prayed by his faithful mother, and knowing she was gone, had shaken him. Minutes later, he lifted his hands and recommitted himself to God.
What a tragic thing to realize there are NO MORE PRAYERS LEFT in your vial. If you don’t pray for yourself, who will? Knowing God saves our prayers to use for a later time to work in the earth, we cannot assume our relatives’ prayers are going to fill the vial with our name on it.
In the parable of the little widow woman and the unjust judge, Jesus teaches us to keep praying and, as it were, to store up those prayers until…you get your breakthrough. The Apostle Paul taught the Galatians, that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9) It seems God desires to save away our tears in a bottle (Psalms 56:8) so He can pour them out upon us in due time.
For example, you may be storing up prayers for your son’s protection overseas and later find out his unit was just bombed and he is spared. Or perhaps you find your prayers for your daughter at school didn’t go amiss; she really needed it this week because it saved her from a broken leg accident during gym class.
So, we can safely say that God operates through our petitions and saves them up for later use. Your faith-filled prayers for your kids, your parents, your neighbors, and others- none of them are forgotten or wasted. They all last forever or until the prayer is terminated when the answer comes. When we pray kingdom prayers, prophetic prayers, or God-inspired prayers, He stores them up until He can bring His desire to pass.
In these last days, we must not quit praying but fill those vials up with fervent prayers. Many believe that the prayers prayed a few years ago during the unrest of our nation are about to be poured out on the earth so that we may reap the end-time harvest. But wouldn’t it be a tragedy if the vials were empty just because the saints have left off praying?
Juli Jasinski
WNOP Kids Prayer Coordinator
(Information from WNOP Prayer Connect Newsletter)
