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"And He said to them, "It is written,
'My house shall be called a house of prayer,'
but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"
(Matthew 21:13)
A house of prayer. This is God's design for places dedicated to worshiping Him. In Matthew 21:13, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 56:7, where two times in this one verse Isaiah refers to the house of prayer. Prior to Jesus quoting this verse from the prophet Isaiah, He literally overturned the tables of those who were more focused on making money than worshiping the LORD in His Temple. One commentary describes the scene: "They insisted that in the temple the people could not use money that had been circulating in society, but had to change their money into temple money first, for a fee, and then use the temple money to purchase animals for sacrifice, at inflated prices." (Barbieri, L. A., Jr. (1985). Matthew. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 68). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
I am seeing a resurgence of weekly prayer meetings in many churches. Our church in Austin, Texas began in November last year holding prayer meetings on Tuesday nights. It has now become a weekly occurrence. We gather together in the sanctuary at 7:00PM, and for the most part, we pray. There is some praise and worship, but mostly, we pray. Here are a couple of photos from our prayer meetings. I love these pictures, as they capture the essence of our people calling out to God in fervent prayer. (Please forgive the low resolution.)
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Last week, we followed a prayer guide from Longhollow Baptist Church in Tennessee. Pastor Robby Gallaty has been posting on social media about a powerful work of God in their church as a result of the people calling out to God in prayer. One of my favorite quotes Gallaty posted is this one from Samuel Chadwick: "Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray."
About 40 years ago, Pastor Jim Cymbala at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York started a Tuesday night prayer meeting. Only 12 showed up the first night and they prayed for 5 minutes. But God has blessed them, and now they have around 3,000 people on Tuesdays praying and 10,000 worshipers on Sunday. He wrote in Fresh Wind Fresh Fire, published in 2003, that the prayer meeting would be the gauge of the success of their church. They went all-in on the prayer meeting, and wow, God has blessed them tremendously!
A few years ago, I attended a Tuesday night prayer meeting at Brooklyn Tab, and the place was packed. It was such a powerful night. People kept coming, and we had to sit in the balcony. What a wonderful problem to have! Upon arrival, we were given a card with a prayer request. We praised the Lord, and we prayed. It was wonderful.
Is your local church a house of prayer? If not, you can change that by simply praying and asking others to join you.
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Build a stronger, more confident faith!
Pastor Danny gives you God’s answers to life’s big questions in his 7-message series, Explore God.
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Family Goals, Pt. 1: the Triangle
Pastor Danny begins a new series of episodes called "Family Goals" with his wife, Ashley. To start the series, they share their story of finding each other, falling in love, getting married, and starting a family. They also discuss how the most critical element of a successful marriage, it's foundation, should be each person's relationship with God and putting God first, each other next, above oneself, and children third.
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