Luke 19:46
46 "It is written," he said to them, "My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers."
In this verse Jesus is clearly upset that the temple was made into a den of robbers instead of a house of prayer. People buying and selling their sacrificial animals as if it was your typical flea market threw Jesus into a frenzy. I think this allows us to see a side of Jesus that a lot of people don't take notice of.... If you think I'm talking about his temper then think again.....I'm talking about how important he thought prayer was.
Jesus often went away to secluded places so he could pray. He always made a determined effort no matter what was going on around him. And I think when he saw the temple, perhaps one of the biggest places to pray, turned into something other than a house of prayer it insulted him.
But what has me thinking about this verse the most is this question I keep asking myself... How important is prayer in my/your temple?
Now there are really two ways you could look at that question.
- How important is prayer at your church?
- How important is prayer in your personal life?
First let's address the church - doesn't it seem as if prayer has kind of escaped the church structure these days? I mean if you look at church's everywhere I'm sure you will find a decreased amount of prayer compared to what it may have been before.
It seems right and appropriate to pray before the sermon, before communion and before the offering is collected but what about in between? What would happen if someone was to come up front and pray through an entire service? Would the church grow impatient and want the show to go on or would people come up and surround that person and cover them with prayer?
What if an entire group of people just sat in their pew and prayed through the entire service? Would that be a distraction to you? What if church's turned into a house of prayer? Do you think life change would happen?
Your personal life - The Bible tells us that your body is your temple. And if the temple in those days was to be called a house of prayer what do you think your temple is a house of today? Is it a house of prayer or is it one of the following...
- A house of selfishness?
- A house of jealousy?
- A house of sin?
- A house of pride?
- A house of lies?
- A house of secrets?
- A house of theft?
- A house of lust?
- A house of masks?
What is your temple really made of?
Wow! No wonder this scripture has been on my mind a lot lately!
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