As we read Matthew 21:12-16, it reminds us that there will be challenges facing us as we follow the call of being God’s house of prayer.¹ We can’t remain the same if we are to go the next level with God.

Change Is Strange

The first challenge that faces us, according to Matthew 21, verse 15, is that it may not be what we’re used to. It says the chief priests became angry because the children were saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

Some would argue that these kids didn’t know what they were talking about. They probably were just repeating what the crowd was saying earlier outside. Jesus affirmed their praise, because these children were open to see what God had really come to do.

Not some political thing, not some political deliverance. People were being healed inside the temple. The priests were thinking, “We’ve never seen that before.” Like the priests back then, we will need the faith of a child to see the new things God is doing and will be doing.

Change Is Hard

Some of you may know this already, but this is the second time Jesus comes in the temple and cleanses the temple. According to John, chapter 2, he had done this before earlier in his ministry. Before we judge these people and say, “Uh, these people can never learn,” let’s look at ourselves.

It is so easy to go back to business as usual. It is so easy to fall back into our destructive patterns. It is so easy to settle into apathy. So what are we supposed to do when fear and habits pull us back into stuff away from what God has called us to be?

The Hope of Change

Most of us who have had some life-changing experience with God want to be the kind of people God has called us to be. We can’t do it by ourselves. That’s our heart cry. It’s a deep desire for God’s healing. The heart cry is a deep desire for our relationships to be healed. We can’t do it by ourselves.

So what do we do?

We cry out, “We need you, God.” When we cry out to God and tell him, “We need you,” it allows God to drive out the things that stand in the way of his blessing. It allows God to drive out the things within us that stand in the way of the supernatural blessing He has for each one of us.

Verse 14 of Matthew 21 says the blind and the lame came to Jesus at the temple and Jesus healed them. The noise of the moneychangers, the buyers and the sellers, and the noise of the cattle is gone. Now there’s room for the people who need Jesus. What does it sound like? What’s the sound of people set free and healed? It sounds like the laughter of children from verse 15, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Translated it means, “Yes, God is healing us. Yes, God is saving us.”

It’s the sound of the joy that God has promised in his house of prayer. God wants all of you, not just the acceptable part of us, or what we think is the acceptable part of us. God is searching and looking for people who are broken and people who need Jesus and who know they need a Savior. If that’s you, He makes room for you. He makes room for true worship in His house. He makes room for the prayer of our hearts,”I need you, God.”

A House of Prayer Renovation Part 1 Part 1 of 3

A House of Prayer Renovation Part 2 Part 2 of 3