There is a tendency in all of us to exalt ourselves — to seek the recognition and attention of other people. As we dig into the context of this command, we’ll see that Jesus cuts right to the heart and exposes this pride in all of us.
A real evidence of faith is persistent prayer. But why do we find it so hard to continue in prayer without giving up?
God tells us to ask Him for things in prayer, but why do we ask sometimes and not see anything happen?
What competes with faith in our lives? If faith comes by listening to the Word of God, then the reverse is true as well. Unbelief and doubt come into our lives when we give our ear to other things.
Augustine said: “Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” When Jesus commanded us to ask in faith, He also gave us an invitation — an invitation to draw near to the Faithful One.
Did you know that the cumulative weight of something as small as a cell-phone carried for 100 miles would add up to 70,000 pounds? This puts a whole new perspective on “setting aside every weight” in order to run the race set before us! We are thrilled to have ultramarathoner Arlen Glick join us on this delightful episode.
As we allow God’s Word to renew our minds and change our hearts, our “temples” are cleansed. As we allow Him to deal with anything that would hinder us, we will begin to live and operate as houses of prayer!
Why did Jesus come in and so abruptly cleanse the Temple? Jesus came in to cleansed out the things that were in competition with God’s purpose for the Temple.