Amazing God of love, make evident Your love in the life and needs of this dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our passage for this Monday of Holy Week comes from Luke 19:45-48: 45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, "It is written, "My house shall be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers." 47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
How awesome it was to have a procession of children in our churches yesterday. I long have held that the entire church should process in celebration of what Palm Sunday represents to our spiritual lives. But we're blessed to have children in our churches to do the marching for us. Thank God for children!
It is now Monday of Holy Week. The crowds have not died down, many are in town for the celebration of Passover and many are awaiting to see what this Jesus will finally do. After three years of countryside preaching and doing a ministry of signs and wonders, could He indeed be the One? Luke has Jesus visit the Temple and as we read above He casts ou those who were selling. "The economy's bad, Jesus, we can no longer tithe, we must resort to doing something to pay the candle costs, the salaries of our priests, so we're selling things..." The response Jesus gave still stands, "The Bible says that God said, "My house shall be a house of prayer." Just prayer? What else? Shouldn't we be doing more than pray?
We can never underestimate the power of prayer. Even if it only changes us, we are still called to be people of prayer. And wait, that statement seems wrong, especially if it only changes us I should have said! Prayer is a mighty force of God to be reckoned with! Prayer is allowing God to move in and through and sometimes in spite of us in all situations, good or bad. And it seemed like folks had stopped praying during Jesus' day and Jesus had to remind them of their need to still pray in the Temple. Truth is there were people all over Israel and beyond praying, waiting, hoping for God to send He who was to change things. The church may have forgotten to pray, as we sometimes do. And in its place we have assigned more earthly things. When we do we find we are lacking in so many areas that we should naturally gravitate back to prayer.
Our time of Lent is almost over and we should be praying like never before. The needs are great in our churches and outside our churches. The needs are great inside our homes and outside our homes. The world needs to pray God's continued transformation of the world. Let this Monday of Holy Week kick that off like never before.
PRAYER: Loving God, on this Monday of this very special and sacred week, receive my prayers to move in my life. You know my needs, my doubts and my fears. Use me to help be a blessing to others. Let my life be a reminder of the need to be in prayer. I ask this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
