Daily Reading for Friday, Jan. 18: Prayer

“And He began to teach and say 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 ROBBERS' DEN." Mark 11:17 The New American Standard Bible

“Without prayer, a church is like a body without spirit; it is a dead, inanimate thing. A church with prayer in it, has God in it. When prayer is set aside, God is outlawed. When prayer becomes an unfamiliar exercise, then God himself is a stranger there.
As God’s house is a house of prayer, the divine intention is that people should leave their homes and go to meet him in his own house. The building is set apart for prayer especially, and as God has made special promises to meet his people there, it is their duty to go there, and for the specific end. Prayer should be the chief attraction for all spiritually minded churchgoers. While it is conceded that the preaching of the Word has an important place in the house of God, yet prayer is its predominate, distinguishing feature. ...As prayer distinguishes Christians from non-Christian people, so prayer distinguishes God’s house from all other houses. It is a place where faithful believers meet with their Lord.” E.M. Bounds

In our striving for relevance in this world, we must remember that we are still distinct from this world. When Jesus turned out the money-changers from the Temple, it was because the Temple had become too much like the world—not too distinct from it. The world has plenty of itself—it can finds its own pleasures anywhere it seeks to. Only we can offer the world a conduit to that which it truly seeks, that is a conduit to God Almighty. And we can only be that conduit when we pray.