A House of Prayer

I suffered a devastating loss this week. My cell phone DIED. That’s right - DIED! As you can imagine, I was beside myself, freaking out, wondering how I was going to survive without it.

I should have gotten an upgrade long ago. I had an iPhone 6. Don’t scoff - it worked perfectly fine…until it didn’t!

Anyway, the solution was to go to the service provider and get an upgrade. That isn’t devastating in the least – hello, 21st century!

What truly was devastating, though, was that because I couldn’t even turn on my old phone, and I didn’t know if I had the iCloud backup mobilized, I was terrified I had lost forever some items from my phone that were irreplaceable. Like the voicemail from my Dad where he told me not to worry - that he was ok (he passed away suddenly this past October), and the text messages I had from him.

So, I did the only thing I could do - I prayed. I outright prayed for everything to have been backed up and restorable to the new phone, but I didn’t pray for that exclusively.

I prayed the way God has taught me to pray progressively over the last couple of years: I prayed first that everything, at least of personal irreplaceable value to me, was backed up and would appear on the new phone, and then I prayed if that didn’t happen, for God to help me find a way to recover what I had lost. If THAT wasn’t possible, I prayed for God to be ready to cover me in the peace that’s past understanding. Then I turned it over completely to Him.

For our faithful readers, have you noticed how often we mention prayer in our blogs? Almost every time.

I was recently asked what my prayer life looks like, and I struggled to answer the question. My answer was that I don’t have a set prayer time, routine, way I position myself, or even location. I struggled with my answer because in my mind I pray all the time. I pray whenever I feel like it: When the sunset moves me, I’m thankful for something, I need something, or I’m about to do or say something I shouldn’t/don’t want to. Prayer, for me, isn’t formal or strictly structured (though I have massive respect for those types of prayers, too) - it’s simply me talking to God.

Prayer, for me, is like other basic functions of life (outside of the obvious - breathing): Eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m thirsty, sleep when I’m tired, and talk to God when I want/need to talk to God.

However, I will also confess that too many times I eat when I’m NOT hungry, I don’t drink when I’m thirsty (because then I’ll have to use the bathroom, and it’s not convenient), and I fall asleep watching TV instead of going to bed when I start to get sleepy. I also don’t talk to God ALL the time, and some days I may not talk to Him at all.

That realization bothered me, so I searched the Bible for the word “prayer,” and this is one of the places I landed:

“It is written,” he said to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it ‘a den of robbers,’” (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46).

Now, come with me on a crazy, metaphorical journey.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Revelation 3:20)

This verse is referencing a house/home and what happens when someone comes to visit. When we accept Christ, he comes into our heart (permanently), and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We, essentially, become a house/home – one that now belongs to Jesus.

“It is written,” he said to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it ‘a den of robbers,” (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46).

Once we accept Christ, we become His house. We must, therefore, make sure we are a House of Prayer. Constant communication with God in whatever manner fits the moment/content/geography/etc.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “[P]ray continually.”

Saint Francis of Assisi said, “At all times preach the gospel, and if necessary - use words.”

Friends, as a wise woman said in the women’s Bible study I’m a member of, your life may be the only Bible people read.

We cannot be living examples of Emmanuel - God with us - if we aren’t constantly connected to Him, and prayer is that connection.

I urge us all to pray continually, in every possible way, so the light of God in us will shine bright enough in this dark world for the lost to be found.

Be the lighthouse amid the storm, a beacon of the hope we have in Christ, God’s glory the morning of the resurrection when death was defeated and we were redeemed, and the solar-powered markers along the path of The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

AMEN