House of Prayer (Luke 19:45–46)
“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it a den of robbers.”
– Luke 19:45–46
Wow. I’m pretty overwhelmed, even just reading this verse on this day. It was a week ago today when in our church family, we saw God’s invitation in Isaiah 55 for us to seek Him, call on Him and cry out to Him and we did in a way that none of us saw coming.
McLean Bible Church’s Impromptu Prayer Gatherings
Our 11:00 am gathering continued all the way until about close to 4:00 pm that afternoon in a way I’d never been a part of in a Sunday morning church gathering and then I won’t go into all the details of how, but the next day, God clearly prompted me and other leaders in our church to invite, call our church to continue praying and seeking Him that night for a gathering and didn’t know what would happen or who might show up and we thought, well, if 20 people show up, it’ll be awesome to see God together.
But a lot more than 20 people showed up and it was awesome. So we sought God in prayer and confession and repentance and worship and intercession and we did the same the next night and the next night and the next and so to come the next Sunday to this verse in our church’s Bible reading, which is what this podcast follows. It’s the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan. I highly recommended.
Luke 19:45–46 Teaches God’s standard of Prayer for His Church
But Jesus entering the temple, turning over tables, driving out those who are selling and buying there and saying, “My house is a house of prayer,” and well, I don’t think this word could be any clearer. God, we want our churches, Your church, to be houses of prayer, to be places where we go and we genuinely seek You, call and cry out to You together, where we don’t just go through religious motions and carry out religious activities, unchanged, where we come together and we seek You with all our hearts and we’re transformed by You in prayer according to Your word. God, make our churches houses of prayer and not just our churches, our bodies as temples of Your Holy Spirit.
Make us houses of prayer. Lord, help us to walk continually with You, to worship You continually, to plead before You in concentrated times and continually throughout the day. God, we pray that You’d make us people of prayer, that You would keep us from missing the point in so many ways, much like they were missing the point in Luke, chapter 19. Jesus, we pray that You would do whatever is needed in each of our lives and in our churches to turn us upside down and make us houses of prayer for the nations. We know that Mark’s account of this story emphasizes, “My house will be a house of prayer for all the nations.” God may this be true of our lives and our churches.
Praying for the Kuruaya & Kantarure People
May we be houses of prayer for the nations, for the nations to worship You in those places, through our lives, through our churches and far from our lives and far from our churches as we intercede for the nations, as we pray for the Kuruaya people of Brazil and the Kantarure people of Brazil and thousands of other unreached people, groups around the world, nations that have not been reached with the good news of Your love. God, hear our prayers and our lives and our churches for the nations and cause Your glory to spread. Oh God, make us houses of prayer. Show us what this means for each of our lives and each of our churches for us as Your church. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
