Complete Work

“...My house is a house of prayer...” - Luke 19:46

As Jesus came into Jerusalem and made His way to the temple, He saw something horrific. He saw people unethically buying, selling, and trading in the temple courts. The money changers and livestock handlers continually charged the people more than ten times the value of the sacrifice. God’s priests who profited most from the scheme, had no remorse for advantage of people. Instead of using the system to make it easier for people to pray and worship God, their evil motives kept people from God. This saddened Jesus. As a result, He flipped the tables of the money changers over and screamed out, “My house is a house of prayer!”

In this story, we learn that everything we do in corporate worship should draw people closer to God. All of our preaching, music, classes, instruction, offerings, coffee hours, and fellowship should be with the mindset of helping people draw near to God in prayer and personal worship. Do you have a personal prayer life with God? If so, are you serving your local church so others can have what you have? Beloved, make time for prayer! Then use the rest of your time to remove any obstructions so that others can get to the Lord also!