Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer based on Psalm 63:1.
LORD, you are my God;
Earnestly I search for signs of Your presence and the sound of Your whisper.
My soul thirsts for you. I long to hear Your life-giving voice.
Please speak to me in the gentle whisper of Your Word
and help me to respond. Amen.
Reading
Jesus had just entered Jerusalem for the final week of His life. The crowds had hailed Him as king but, by riding in on a donkey, Jesus had symbolically declared that He was a king who came in peace, and not a warrior king. He would be the sort of saviour God the Father had called Him to be, and not the sort the crowd demanded.
The first thing on Jesus’ agenda that day was to confront the reality that the Temple authorities had allowed the sacred Meeting Place between God and humanity (the Temple) to become a place of trading and profiteering.
The priests and their associates were “robbing worshippers blind” by imposing exorbitant exchange rates when worshipers brought “unclean” Roman currency and needed to exchange it for shekels. Equally, they took advantage of their power by selling “pre-approved” sacrificial animals to the people at much higher prices. They had forsaken their role of facilitating true worship, by which God’s people could offer God the thanks and praise that was His due and receive His forgiveness of their sins. Instead, they manipulated the people and their hunger for God to their own advantage.
So Jesus, the Great High Priest and the only perfect Mediator between God and humanity eradicated the most obvious barriers to intimacy between God and people in that Temple. He drove out all who were buying and selling in the Temple courts. Quoting Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11, He said: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Whenever we read this short passage, I believe we need to accept and respond to the clear call of Jesus. He has destroyed the separation between us and God through His self-sacrificial death on the Cross. He has opened the way for us to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, whenever we need to. And I believe He calls to us in our day and age:
“Eradicate everything that stands between you and your expression of honest, heartfelt worship of God; and start this work in your daily life by prioritising prayerful communion with God.“
What stands in the way of you spending time in worshipful, prayerful communion with God today? What can you do to change that and step into His open arms to commune with Him? What will you do about it?
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will prioritise worshipful, prayerful communion with God.
- I will eradicate everything that stands between me and my expression of honest, heartfelt worship of God.
Holy Spirit, draw me near to the Loving Father and empower me to express honest, heartfelt, prayerful worship. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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