House Of Prayer

House of Prayer

Read: Matthew 21:12-13

“‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’”

Matthew 21:13

“None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience.”

—Martin Luther

IN WORD As Jesus is overturning the money-changing tables in the Temple, He quotes Isaiah 56:7, a verse from a passage about Sabbath-keeping and God’s worldwide mission—“a house of prayer for all nations,” Isaiah reads (emphasis added). It is a striking irony: The money changers had a limiting effect on who could worship God by their monetary controls and exploitation, while Jesus speaks of the global inclusiveness of the true worship of God. They had missed the whole point about worship—it is to be freely and joyfully given. God’s house is about prayer. Nothing else. Not profit, not expedience, just pure, undefiled communion with Him.

The New Testament application of this is not what we might think. We often apply Jesus’ indictment of the money changers at the Temple to our own church buildings. They, too, are to be houses of prayer, of course. But Jesus never calls a church building “God’s house.” Neither do any of the New Testament writers. God’s house, after the gift of the Spirit, is the heart of the believer. He dwells in us—individually and corporately. And as His house, we are the house of prayer.

IN DEED Do you consider yourself—your own heart—a house of prayer? It is where God dwells, according to post- Pentecost Scripture (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21-22). There is to be pure, undefiled communion there. And it is global—a house of prayer for all nations. God’s dwelling place is a worldwide body doing a worldwide ministry, lifting up the whole world’s needs to its head.

John 2:17 tells us that Jesus is consumed by His zeal for His Father’s house. Knowing that we are His Father’s house makes that verse profound indeed. Jesus will zealously pursue communion in you, even if it means overturning some tables. There are to be prayers and holy fellowship in that sacred place.