Prayer Basics + “Filing Cabinets”
Filing Cabinets.
Last night, during church, I had a little thought about our prayers being “filed” in heaven. I began to think about my prayers being written, transcribed, recorded on blank pages. One side written, and then another. Each page placed in a file, in a filing drawer, in a filing cabinet. Every word kept on file. How may files would be full? How many drawers would be full? How many filing cabinets would there be? Would heaven have record that I had been on my knees?
Now, I know this is just a “Megan thought,” because the Bible says nothing about filing cabinets in Heaven. However, the Bible clearly indicates that our prayers are stored in the heavenly realm. Revelation 5:8 says, “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and GOLDEN VIALS full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.”
In Acts 10, a God-fearing centurion, Cornelius, who is about to be the first Gentile convert of the New Testament, has an angelic encounter. “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” (Acts 10:1-4)
The angel then goes on to give instructions for the lives of Peter and Cornelius. (Peter, who had seen the initial outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, was about the see the same outpouring in Cornelius’ home!) And it was made possible by “always prayers” that were “on file,” whose record had become a memorial before God.
I love the Greek word for memorial. It is #34222 à “mnemosynom” and is used only 2 other times in the New Testament…both in regards to the woman whose broken alabaster box and lavish love poured out on Jesus would become a “memorial.” (Matt. 26:13/Mark 14:9) It’s definition, from Thayer’s is: “a memorial, that by which the memory of any person or thing is preserved…TO HAVE BECOME KNOWN TO GOD, so that He needs and is about to help.” Cornelius’ prayers had accumulated to the point that they had made him known to God. He had become a familiar face in the throne room. The record of his myriad prayers had reached a point that caused God to take note and script his story into one of the 28 chapters that comprise the Actions of the Apostles. His memorial prayers preceded and facilitated the opening of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And his “always prayers” saw his name recorded in another location: “The Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Revelation 3:5/13:8/17:8/20:12/20:15/21:27/22:19) Not only were Cornelius’ prayers “on file,” his prayers produced results.
Job says, “My witness is in heaven, my record is on high.” (Job 16:19) Though he doesn’t specifically mention prayers, he does indicate the RECORDS of heaven. Whether vials, or bottles, or books, or memorials, or “filing cabinets,” I know not the exact form, but I do know that prayers are recorded in heaven. Every word, every cry, every groan, every tear, preserved, recorded, “filed” in that heavenly place. Words, paper, and filing cabinets are probably easier to understand to this “writer/secretary brain” of mine, but whatever the method, not one word of prayer is lost. Every word captured and noted by a great God. Every utterance expressed in faith to Him, taken into account and remembered. Every prayer a part of the memorial.
This reminds me of a quote I read several years ago by Peter Kreeft, a professor at Boston College:
“I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest or our prayers make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.”
Wow.
I don’t yet see the results of all my prayers, but I stand in faith that my words are on record, “on file,” ready to be referred to and taken note of. My prayers are not forgotten. My prayers are not in vain.
My prayers are on file in heaven.
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YOUR prayers are on file in Heaven.
This is just a little thought and I pray that it reminds you that your prayers matter…that eternity is keeping count of them.