My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.
God has given us a place to be in his presence and to seek his face. With what do we fill it? Whether we are in a church building or in prayer in our homes, what sorts of thoughts do we allow to predominate? It is too easy to let worldly exchange steel the focus from God. In fact, without Jesus to drive out thoughts of this sort, we won't be victorious over them.
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things
While we can't prevent thoughts and distractions from coming unbidden to us, we have been given new minds empowered by grace to think intentionally in accord with the truth of God's word. We can take all thoughts, including distractions, captive to Christ (see Second Corinthians 10:5). We can do this because we have the mind of Christ himself (see First Corinthians 2:16).
There are two different but related ways that having the mind of Christ manifests (or ought to manifest) in our prayer life. The first is that we are empowered to be intentional about the content of our prayer.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (see Philippians 4:8).
Without needing to script it out in advance, we are able to speak to our King, our Friend, our Beloved, without losing ourselves in circumstances, as happens when one thing reminds us of another, which makes us worry about another, until we are lost in anxiety, and have lost track of the presence of God.
The second way the mind of Christ manifests in our prayer is that when distractions come we do not allow them to serve the world in leading us away from God. We capture them, responding to the implicit half-truths they contain with the full truth of the word of God, exposing their lies, and dissolving their power over us.
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
Jesus himself is present within us, enabling a prayer life that is more than a script, more than a simple loss of ourselves in thought about the problems of our lives. Our prayer can truly become a place where we find ourselves "hanging on his words."
The mind of Christ is strengthened in us as we learn the truth contained in his word and make it our own. We must be like John and consume the word.
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, “Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
As the word casts out lies from our lives it may be sour, but in itself it is always sweetness, and without it we assuredly starve. When the word is within us we can set our own desires and ambitions aside, and truly come together as a house of prayer for all peoples.
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
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