A Prayerful Place

“And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17) 

Every year, Jack Nicklaus would go back to his old golf coach and make a simple request: teach me how to golf. The greatest golfer in the world wanted to revisit the basics every year because he knew an important truth. We are forgetful. Too often, we have let the urgent overrun the important. Most reading this paper have been in church for decades, but have we ever stopped to ponder what exactly we are doing on Sunday? We become involved in many programs and policies, committees and crusades, that we forget what is most important – prayer. 

First, Jesus notes that the church should first be a house of prayer. I find this most interesting, for in all my years of ministry, I have never heard someone complain about a lack of prayer. I heard plenty of quibbles over worship styles, preaching length, and programs for children; but never have I heard a concern over prayer. Yet what does Scripture say? Ananias knew that Paul was converted because “he was praying.” (Acts (9:11) Of the church, God says that He will “pour out a spirit of grace and supplications” (Zech. 12:10). Wherever grace is found, so too should be prayer. Pages and pages could be written of the role of prayer in the Acts of the Apostles, in the early church, and in every major revival recorded in church history. 

Second, the church should be a house of prayer for all the nations. The prayers to God should first align with the purposes of God (1 Tim. 2:1-2). What is that purpose? To gather and perfect the elect from all the nations. Corporate prayer on Sunday and Wednesday should not primarily be an “organ donor” list nor merely requests for our work; rather, our prayers should first resound for the lost in our community, our state, our country, and our world. Do they? I would encourage us all to pray in these concentric circles, bringing our prayers to God in alignment with the plan of God. 

Lastly, the church’s lack of prayer is denounced in the harshest of terms – “a den of robbers.” A prayerless place is a lawless place. These are those who turn God’s tender mercies into mischief and malfeasance. As the destruction of this temple makes clear, we cannot expect this sort of behavior to bring about God’s blessings. If this passage teaches us one thing, it is that our churches should be, must be full of prayer. Go to midweek prayer meetings, gather with other Christians, find every opportunity to pray!