What is this thing called prayer all about?

• Pray
• Confess your sins
• God hears your prayer like a father hears your request
• Take your problems to God
• Praise and thank God, he requires it
• Prayer is the panacea to all your problems

And so on...

You have tons of articles and videos and books floating around on the importance of prayer, how to pray, when to pray, why it is an absolute necessity to pray, etc. etc. 

In the bible, we continuously come across verses asking us to pray or example of saints who prayed. Even Jesus prayed. So since there is so much of emphasis on prayer, I am assuming it must be something important.

But why is it so important?

How can my mumbling a few words under my breath make a difference? How does it help me connect with God? Or is there a process prayer that I am unaware of? Most books advise us to just have a conversation with God. Even the sample prayer Jesus taught his disciples is simple. So that's probably not the case. But since there is so much of emphasis on this topic, there must be something to it. Some significance, some greater purpose.

I think I found my answer in the old custom of burning incense. I did a bit of research on this, and interestingly, almost every single religion in the world (Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam) burn incense.

Interestingly, even kings and emperors required that incense be burned in front of them. So it's not just restricted to religious occasions. 

I came across this article, which seems to throw more light on this topic. Before we had room fresheners and dehumidifiers, before construction quality of houses improved, people burned incense to get rid of the mustiness in their houses. But since incense was not a cheap thing, they generally did this only when they were expecting important guests. (http://anglicanhistory.org/alexander/incense.html)

And therein lies the answer. 

Incense was burned to make the house or ceremony hall more presentable to the visiting dignitary. You didn’t want them to be assailed with the smell of garbage or garlic and onions and other spices. You wanted them to have a pleasant experience, and smell plays an important role here. And so is the case with God.

In the book of Revelation, we read about prayer rising up like incense. In Revelation 5:8 it says, the elders held gold bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. In Revelation 8:4 it says, the smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God's holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. In Psalm 141:2, the psalmist pleads before God to accept his prayer as incense offered to him, and the lifting up of his hands as the evening offering.

The offering of incense was a commandment in the Old Testament and an important one at that. This can be derived from the fact that the God of the Old Testament had required the Israelite's to erect an altar of incense. What's interesting is that in Exodus 35:15 it says, the altar of incense and its poles should be at the entrance of the tabernacle. It gains even more significance when you read Leviticus 16: 13-14 which talks about the sin offering that a priest needs to make before he can officiate. The verse goes like this, "He shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense, and bring it inside the veil. He shall then put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die.

God being pure is quite finicky about uncleanness and dirt and filth and foul smell. He will not come in if the environment is not to his liking. In Genesis we read that God smelled the sweet savor of Abel’s offerings, and so was pleased with him. Here again we notice how important a pleasant aroma is to God.

And this to me is the purpose of prayer. In addition to the traditional view of prayer being a request to God to set things right in our lives, or meet a need, or provide help, or fulfill a wish, prayer actually serves the purpose of preparing the atmosphere for God’s presence. We saw that the altar of incense was at the entrance of the tabernacle. Similarly, we are the temple of God. But for God to enter the temple, a sweet incense needs to rise at the entrance to this temple. And prayer is this incense.

So pray to prepare the atmosphere for God’s entry into your world. And then he will dwell in you and have communion with you.