November 28, 2008
House of Prayer
"When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or
grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities;
whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your
people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out
his hands toward this temple: then hear
in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone
according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts
of all the sons of men), that they may
fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
1 Kings 8:37-40
We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I love the verse in 1Kings 8, that says, “when each one knows the plague of his own heart.” We each have areas in our hearts that are plagued--plagued with bitterness, hurt, wounds, walls, fear, hate, lust, and idols. None belong in the heart of God’s children. These plagues are there, because we have sinned. Bitterness takes up residence when we fail to forgive. Hurts and wounds can be healed if we stop putting band-aids on them and bring them to Christ. Walls are built when we care more about man’s opinion than God’s. Fear is the absence of faith. Hate replaces love. Lust desires the things of the world more than the things of God. Finally, idols simply take the place of God himself. We are now a new creation in Christ Jesus and must come to recognize the plagues of our hearts. They are brought to our attention “that you may know that there is none like Me [God] in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:14) As we do, we can lift our hands to heaven and cry out to The God who will hear us and will forgive and act according to our ways, for He knows our hearts. Will we let them go, or will we continue to hold on to them and our hearts be hardened as Pharaoh’s?
In the prayer above, King Solomon is praying as they open the temple after it was first built. Most of his prayer is reminding God that He made a covenant with His people and that when the people sinned and judgment came, that as soon as the people looked to God and called on Him in prayer, that He would hear them and forgive.
Solomon knew the people would sin. He knew there would be consequences to their sin. He wanted the temple he built to be a place of refuge where man could find the God that would hear his cry and answer. He wanted the temple to be a house of prayer. He wanted the temple to be a place where people far and near knew The Almighty God dwelled. He wanted it known among the nations that the God he served was powerful, all-knowing, compassionate, and forgiving, but most of all—above all other gods.
How is the temple you’re building? Do people know it is the dwelling place of The Most High God? Do they know that they can run to you for prayer and God will hear? Does your temple remind them that the God you serve and the God that dwells in you is The One and Only King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Keep His temple holy. When you
accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you invited Christ to live inside
of you. For you were bought at a price; therefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(1 Corinthians 6:20) Don’t harden your heart. Drive out the things that don’t
belong in your temple with a whip as Jesus did. Don’t be merciful. You are a
called to be a house of prayer!
God Bless You,
JanetFairbrother