Do you remember the story of when Jesus cleaned out the Temple of all the money changers and sellers? This is what He said at that time: ““It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’”” (Matthew 21:13) Since He was cleaning out the Temple at the time, we all associate what He said with that and that's fine, we should do so. But I think there's another meaning we could also see. Jesus taught that now we are His temple! (1 Corinthians 6:19) Looking at it that way, the saying that His house will be called a house of prayer, and indeed, the whole story of Him cleaning out the Temple, takes on a whole new meaning!
Most of all, the part about His house (the temple) being a house of prayer really resonates with me and convicts me too. Jesus prayed a LOT and He was God! If He had to pray as much as He did, then we should have to pray a whole lot more! No wonder His Word tells us to pray constantly! “pray continually;” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18) Jesus often told His followers and disciple this: ““Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”” (Matthew 26:41) In Acts 6:3–4“ we're told that the Disciples devoted themselves to prayer and studying and speaking God's Word. Then God tells us through Paul to devote ourselves to prayer: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2) I don't know about you, but I don't think I could honestly say that I devote myself to prayer or that I pray continually every day. I have a problem of my mind starting to wander at times when I'm praying. Then I found this gem that really spoke to me: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” (1 Peter 4:7) Remember when Peter fell asleep when Jesus had asked him to pray? It looks like he learned from that experience. It sounds like he may have also had the problem of his mind wandering when he prayed and because of those things, gave us that instruction. What's really neat though is that self control is one of the fruits of the Spirit, so God is growing our self control all the time, if we are being as obedient as we know how to by reading His Word daily and applying it to our lives. (because God uses His Word to change us and grow us up in our faith). Isn't that kind of neat though? We have to use self control (and discipline) to make studying our Bible daily a habit, and the more we do that the more our self control grows. Then as we make prayer a daily habit that also helps grow our self control. Finally we can grow to where we're praying all the time.
By telling us to pray continually, it doesn't mean we're to stop everything else and do nothing but pray. Instead, we're to pray about whatever we're doing and while doing everything else! Nor is it saying we have to be on our knees to pray. Nowhere does the Bible indicate that there's a certain "acceptable way to pray". We can pray while standing, sitting, laying down, walking, running or whatever. And we should pray while doing all those things. Prayer is nothing more then talking to God. We hear about having a personal relationship with the Lord all time, but how often do you think about that relationship? If you only spoke to your spouse when you wanted something, do you think your relationship with them would be close? Of course not! It's the same way with the Lord. If we want a close relationship with Him, then we need to talk to Him, a lot! So knowing that our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, let's also make this temple a house of prayer!
When you have time, please open your Bible and read about the two times Jesus cleansed the temple and meditate on how much of the story can be talking about our lives now. You'll find the stories at: The first cleansing: John 2:12–25; The Second cleansing: Matt 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–46.
