House of prayer

House of prayer

Mt 21:12,13.

One of the profound ironies of the Christian Religion is the fact that many assemblies pray earnestly, but yet remain platforms where sin rules and lives remain unchanged. One would expect that an assembly full of prayers would be devoid of gossip, envy, hard-heartedness, shady behaviors, etc. Rather, the more we pray, the more these evils multiply. The reason is not far-fetched, we are not praying aright, we use public prayer to cover up our secret sins, we dwell and insist on our fleshly desire in prayer, we futilely arm-twist God with ultimatums and we make loud declarations to force His hand. All of these render our labors in prayer useless and without answers. The primary reason that God designed prayer is for fellowship and our ultimate submission to His will- Matthew 6:9-10 After this manner therefore pray all of you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. We must come into God’s prescribed purpose of prayer and render it daily and as often as we can with an earnest desire to see God’s will come into effect in our lives, families, and in the world.

From the text, we see Christ performing an act of sanitizing the temple by getting rid of various outlets of ungodly enterprises that threaten the correct arrangement of the temple toward the true worship of the Father. There were three categories of these ungodly institutions namely: the traders, the changers (the barter promoters), and the sacrifice enablers. This is typical of our religious houses today. We are either trading in one thing or another, using the gathering of the people to advance our agenda; or encouraging the world to bring their monies into the Church regardless of the source and manner of acquisition; or we make the people comfortable and give ease of access to worship and sacrifices without considering the state of their hearts. All these acts corrupt the very essence of our assembly before God.

Better still, the Lord wants our lives to be the temple of worship and prayer- Acts 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet. We don’t need a physical building for us to pray as God desires to make our hearts His continual abode- Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

Prayer must be accompanied by the following to get an answer:

P – Purity and a life of piety Acts 10:1,2.

R- Restitution of any fault and forgiveness Mark 11:25.

A- Affirmation of God’s words Romans 4:20.

Y- Yieldedness to God’s will Colossians 1:9.

E- Empowerment of the Holy Spirit Romans 8:26

R- Restful assurance on His promise Hebrews 13:8.

Meditation

1.Enlarge my heart O Lord
That I may rightly perceive
Help me to understand
What the true burden of the Lord is
That I may not slack any more
Nor withhold myself from Holy use.

2 Perfect my sight O Lord
Help me to see as you see
Right values for eternal things
Lord give me cause my eyes to see
That I see not men as trees
Nor lose sight of my duty and call