Life Journal: Making Room For Prayer
Scripture
12Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” Matthew 21:12-13
Observation
This morning as I was reading about the cleansing of the temple I was reminded of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Then, I had to ask the question, “If Jesus is walking through my temple, my life, my thoughts, my actions, what is he cleaning out and what am I letting in?” Notice what happens when the tables are turned over and the money changers driven out? When greed is revealed and that religious spirit is confronted it opens the door for healing. “14The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.” (Mt. 21:14-15) The fruit of a temple that wholly belongs to Jesus is compassion for those on the outside looking in and spontaneous praise and joy. Is this what is filling my temple? How do I make sure I haven’t given any square footage of my life over to the thieves of this age? One word. Prayer. His house is a house of prayer. The Holy Spirit in me prays through me and shows me the tables that need to be turned.
Application
Today is the National Day of Prayer and the timing couldn’t be more clear. I must prayerfully consider where Jesus is doing some spring cleaning in the temple of my life and that usually involves making room where things have become crowded.
Make Room For Others: Is there room in my life for those who are different from me or have I turned God’s temple into an echo chamber of those who all sound and look the same? The merchants bought/sold in the outer courts of the temple, the only area where Gentiles could come and pray.
Make Room For Integrity: The exchange rate from doves for sacrifice was 20 times more inside the temple than outside. Is my temple a place of greed or generosity?
Make Room For Silence: Is my life filled with noise so I can’t hear others or the Lord? “In that uproar of buying and selling and bargaining and auctioneering prayer was impossible. Those who sought God’s presence were being debarred from it from the very people of God’s House.” (Barclay)
Make Room For Healing: Is my life a place of healing for the broken or is it too filled with activity to even notice the need around me? The blind and lame were only allowed in the outer court. Now that Jesus had cleared that out, those who were broken were made whole.
Make Room For Worship: Is there room in my life for praise and worship or is it filled with the noise of this age? The children were often hired to praise the rabbis, but this seems to be spontaneous response to the Spring Cleaning of the Spirit.
Room Room For The Next Generation: Is there room in life for the voice of the next generation? Can I hear from their perspective and release them to minister now. Do I look at them as an interruption or an inspiration?
As the rain pours down this morning I’m reminded of the promise in James 5: “16Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”
Prayer
Jesus, I repent for allowing my temple to be filled with so many other things that there’s often no room for You to speak and move. I’m always asking You to move in big ways, but my life has become so crowded that there’s no breathing room, praising room, healing room, praying room. I am Your temple. I don’t belong to myself. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and remove anything that doesn’t belong.
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