A CALL TO UNITED PRAYER TO OUR CAPTAIN
A CALL TO UNITED PRAYER TO OUR CAPTAIN
My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. —Isaiah 56:7
And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ (Mark 11:17).
“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers'” (Luke 19:46).
The Temple was to be known as “a house of prayer for all peoples.” God’s people are to be praying people. God’s people are to be dependent on Him and not in or on themselves. Prayer is exactly that— showing our utter dependency on God. When talking with Him about anything we are acknowledging that we cannot change anything. He is the one that needs to change people and circumstances. We cannot do that.
So a good question to ask would be— “How is my prayer life?” Not just my personal time with Him, but also time in prayer with others who love Him. How is that going? If I am just an independent person of prayer without any interest in praying with others, seeking the Lord with others, honoring the Lord with others— then am I about the Lord’s purposes? One thing we can understand about the temple being a “house of prayer” is that people were praying together.
The early church met at Solomon’s porch in the temple area. It was when Peter and John were going up to “the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (3pm)” at the Temple that they met the lame man at the Beautiful Gate and the man was healed (Acts). The early church still gathered for prayer and that is what the church should be doing today. There is a real need to join together in united dependency on God. The early church was committed to many areas and one of them was prayer (Acts 2:42). Are you and I committed to prayer? Or is our prayer life one of when it is comfortable and convenient to me? How committed am I to my Lord? Can I truly call Jesus Lord? Is He the Lord of my life? Am I being obedient to Him or directing my own life?
There used to be the phrase “The Truth Shall Set You Free” over the entrance of the University of New Hampshire Library. When they did renovations to the Library years ago they took that large granite face with that phrase down and did not put it back up. In one of the buildings on the entrance wall there is now a “steering wheel on a boat– called the ship’s wheel or boat’s wheel” and over it says, “Your are the captain of your ship, the director of your destiny” or something to that effect. So now it is an independence of a person that is promoted in their destiny and not looking to the “Truth That Would Set You Free.’ What do we have? A vast host on our campuses are living “free” from God and are in bondage to Satan (II Timothy 2:26).
But, dear brothers and sisters, are we living in dependence on the Truth or independent of the Truth as individuals and as local churches? Prayer individually and as a united local body will determine that answer…
Oh Dear Father may I be faithful meeting with You each day and through the day and in the night when I wake. May I also be devoted to prayer with others. May this be so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. So be it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsQmsEE_2-s