Don't Spill The Beans!

Monday, January 23, 2023
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Listen while you read: "O Word Of God Incarnate"1 (Lyrics)

When my granddaughters, Jenna and Evie, were just preschoolers, they liked to play a game called "Don't spill the beans". This little game has been around a long time; in fact, the game's 1960s version used real kidney beans. It has been a favourite for many years. There is a tipping bowl that players place beans into until the bowl tips over and spills out the beans. The unlucky one who put in that last bean receives all the beans into his pile. The object of the game is to get rid of all your beans.

I thought of this game when I read a verse in the book of Revelation that says that the prayers of believers are collected in gold bowls. Can you even fathom that? Our prayers are so important that they are collected and wait in gold bowls as incense or a fragrant aroma to the Father.

Revelation 5:8 – And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. (NLT)

Our prayers are as fragrant to the Father as incense. I think of the prayers offered at this confusing time in history: requests for healing, both physical and cultural; petitions we raise for our leaders, with all the issues that surround them; prayers for our economy and people hurting financially; pleadings for our churches, that they may be awakened from sleep and go forth with the gospel.

Unlike the whimsical game when the bowl is tipped, we are not the losers, but winners, for because of God's everlasting love for His people, when the bowls are full, they tip, and the answers fall to earth in immeasurable blessings!

I take great delight in thinking about the gold bowls waiting for my prayers to arrive, and even more, the answers being poured out. Let us never miss an opportunity to raise our petitions to our Lord. May we think often of the gold bowls that wait for a filling of our prayers. Prayers to the Lord should be always on our lips and in our hearts. Speak to Him as a friend, for that is what He is. We are winners when we spend time in prayer. May we all find the miracle of talking to our Father God!

Prayer: Heavenly Lamb Who was slain, You are worthy to be praised and to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. We lift our precious prayers to heaven to be placed in the gold bowls. May the bowls tip to shower us with answers to those prayers. Amen.

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About the author:

Jeanie Nihiser <jnihiserj@gmail.com>
Cerro Gordo, Illinois, USA

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1 Comment

  • PresbyCan Feedback says:

    Amen Jeanie.


    Thanks for sharing, Jeanie.


    Wonderful observation Jeanie communicated in simple truth. Blessings.


    Jeanie, merci for the beans analogy and insight from the Apocalypse of prayer as worship.


    Thank you, Jeanie. I can’t remember focusing on this verse before. Very encouraging!


    Thank you, Jeanie, for today’s devotion.
    I enjoy reading it very much.
    (Québec)


    Thank you for that “Don’t spill the beans” story and its wonderful application. We hope that you will keep inspiring us with more devotionals.


    Great post, Jeanie! I am doing a lesson soon for my Sunday school class on prayer and you definitely give me lots of inspiration. Thanks and may God continue to bless you!


    Hello Jeanie,
    What a wonderful way to start the day, reading your encouraging devotional!
    Blessings on your day.
    (BC)


    What a beautiful and thoughtful devotional you have written Jeanie. The thought of prayers being loaded into “gold bowls” gives the feeling of how important the prayers are to our Lord and how caring He is in responding to them. Blessings for this special writing.


    Hello Jeanie,
    I was enlightened by your message today. What a comfort to realize that our prayers are stored in the golden bowls waiting for God to consider and answer according to His holy will. Thank you.
    (ON)


    Jeanie, thank you for this very timely encouragement to pray. I recently did a study in Revelation and thought about the bowls for the first time. Your helpful picture of the tipping bowl in the child’s game really helped me understand more clearly and I’m wanting to help fill the bowl with prayers along with all the prayers of believers throughout the world.


    Dear Jeanie,
    What a wonderful revelation you made for me with our prayers falling into gold cups and being incense for God. I never focused on that passage in Revelations. With your analogy to “Don’t spill the beans”, it made it come alive in my mind. Your positive statements of being the winners with prayer and praying to God as our friend added to my joy. Your mention of all the different kind of prayers that we send to God increased my awareness of how much our prayers are part of our faith.
    Thank you for the new picture in my head so that I can imagine my prayers falling into the gold cups and encouraging me to pray more. May you continue to be inspired to share with others. Blessings.

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