A House of Prayer

When He drove away the moneychangers from the temple, the Lord Jesus cried out, “My house shall be a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46, ESV). That shows His heart for prayer.

Our Lord Jesus modeled a life of prayer Himself: “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” (Luke 5:16) The Gospel of Luke even chronicled key events in the Lord’s ministry where He prayed (which the other Gospels did not point out): at His baptism by John the Baptist (3:21), the night before He chose the 12 apostles (6:12-13), before Peter’s confession (9:18-20) and at His transfiguration (9:28-29). After seeing our Lord spent time in prayer, a disciple asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (11:1). After predicting Peter’s denial, Jesus assured him of His prayers: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (22:31-32) In the Garden of Gethsemane, He commanded the disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (22:40) Right now, at the right hand of the Father, our resurrected Lord is praying for you and me. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (7:25) Our Lord Jesus gave us an example to follow. According to 1 John 2:6, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” The Contemporary English Version goes like this, “If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ.” In short, since we are His followers, our lives should be marked with prayer.

The story is told about a Christian village in Africa. Each villager had their personal prayer spots outside the village marked by foot trails through the brush. “When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much. Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. When ever anyone noticed an overgrown ‘Prayer path,’ he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, ‘Friend, there’s grass on your path!’” (Source: http://bible.org/) I pray that we won’t have overgrown prayer paths. May we be known as people who are devoted to prayer!

Brethren, let us become a house of prayer.

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