Business or Prayer?

"He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers." -- Matthew 21:13

The family outing at local a restaurant was once a time of social interaction. You gathered to talk with one another and share the joys and sorrows of life over a meal. Today when you look around the dining room tables you often find fathers, mothers and sometimes younger family members doing business on their cell phones. The family communion of the past has been replaced with the preoccupation of fast paced business.

In the same way business goals led to a preoccupation in the Temple courts. What was originally intended to be a place of communion with the Lord had become a place of self focused gaining of profit. The money changing of those days has become the church business pursuits of today. While there are those who are satisfied that nothing is sold in the foyer of the church, we find more church business being transacted than prayerful communion.

Where are the prayer circles in church today? Do you attend your church with the intention to join your brothers and sisters in communion with the Lord? Does this quality time to seek the face of God hold a priority in your church life? Do you reserve the discussion of church business for other times and places? Remember, His house was and always is to be a place of prayer, not business.