A House Of Prayer

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

Luke 19:45-46

Often when we read this passage and the corresponding passages in Matthew and Mark, we’re struck by Jesus’ forceful ousting of the merchants from the Temple. What struck me this time, however, wasn’t the action Jesus took but the reason behind it: the Scriptures had declared that his Father’s house was to be a house of prayer. Not a den of thieves, a bank where money is exchanged, or a local market—but a place of prayer. It wasn’t the first or last time a religious group would seek to make God’s house into something other than its intended purpose. Throughout history there have been (and are today) churches that resemble social clubs or social activist groups more than houses of prayer.

Yet the enduring promise in the words of Luke 19 is this: no matter what humanity tries to turn God’s house into, his communities of people will ultimately come back to his intended purpose as people of prayer. In a sense, these verses are a call to continual, earnest prayer—prayer that includes praise and adoration, confession, intervention on behalf of those who are sick, intercession for our cities and nation and for missionaries to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and thanksgiving for who God is and for the blessings he has given us through his Son’s life, death, and resurrection. Would you pray that your church and all churches throughout this country and around the world will become what the Father has desired all along—houses of prayer?

Oh Lord, forgive us for all the ways we neglect prayer in our personal and community life. Restore us to spiritual awakening and grant us the Spirit of prayer. In Christ’s name and for his glory, amen.

Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the Holy Ghost carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints have to carry on intercession for all men.

Oswald Chambers(1874–1917), Scottish minister and teacher