Tobit 12:6-15: in context

Raphael, revealing himself as an angel, tells Tobit and Tobias what he has been doing. When you prayed, he says, and Sarah prayed, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One; and when you buried the dead at cost to yourself, I was with you, and your good deed was not hidden from me. Then he declares who he is: I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and go in before the glory of the Holy One.

Raphael's words open a window onto an unseen reality: our prayers and our hidden good deeds are seen, treasured, and brought before God. Tobit had prayed, not knowing whether his prayers were heard; and Raphael tells him that his prayers were carried up, presented as a memorial before God. Tobit had done acts of mercy in secret, burying the dead at cost to himself, not knowing anyone noticed; and Raphael says, I was with you; your good deed was not hidden from me. What Tobit thought was unseen, his prayers rising into apparent silence, his mercies done in obscurity, was in fact seen, noticed, treasured, and brought before God. There is deep comfort here for our own prayers and hidden good deeds. We pray, and often it seems our prayers rise into silence, unheard, unanswered, lost. Raphael's word says otherwise: our prayers are carried up, presented before God, treasured, not lost. The prayers of the saints, Revelation says, are like incense in golden bowls before God's throne; our prayers are not lost in the void but gathered up and brought before him. And we do acts of mercy and goodness in obscurity, unnoticed, uncredited, and can feel they count for nothing. Raphael's word says our hidden good deeds are seen, that God notices the mercy done in secret, that the good we do when no one is watching is not hidden from him. Your prayers and your gifts to the poor, the angel told Cornelius, have gone up as a memorial before God. This assures us on both counts. Our prayers, though they seem to rise into silence, are heard, treasured, and brought before God; and our hidden good deeds, though unnoticed by others, are seen and remembered by him. Neither our prayers nor our secret mercies are lost; both are seen and treasured by the God who notices what is hidden. Tobit's prayers and hidden mercies were carried before God by an angel he could not see; and our own prayers and unseen goodness are likewise not lost but treasured, brought before the God who sees what is done in secret.

When my prayers seem to rise into silence and my acts of goodness go unnoticed, do I conclude they count for nothing and are lost, or can I take comfort from Raphael's word, that our prayers are carried up and treasured before God and our hidden good deeds are seen by him, so that neither my prayers nor my secret mercies are lost but are treasured by the God who sees what is hidden?