Dear PBC Family,
“for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”” (Isaiah 56:7)
In Isaiah 56, beginning in verse 6, the Lord is describing who the true people of God are. They are not just ethnic Jews. Rather they are people wholly devoted to the Lord. Part of that devotion involves a robust personal and corporate prayer life.
There is an emphasis on corporate intercession that the Lord desires for His people that we see carried into the new covenant, for in Acts we read of the gatherings for prayer that the very first Christians held. Of course, the earliest believers did not have dedicated sanctuaries for praise and prayer, often meeting in homes for teaching and worship. Still, the corporate emphasis on prayer indicates that it is appropriate to have sanctuaries that are houses of prayer for God’s people.
It is surely a mark of spiritual poverty that we devote little attention to corporate prayer when we gather for worship. In many of our modern churches, there is much focus on the music, the sermon, or both, but corporate prayer often seems like an afterthought. Prayer keeps us humble before our Maker and reminds us of our need for His mercy, which is key as only those who rely on God’s mercy alone are declared righteous in His sight
We must not only be a “people of the book” but we must be “a people of prayer.”
Blessings,
Jarred