Daily Reading for Wednesday, Jan. 16: Prayer

“Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."
Isaiah 56:7 The New American Standard Bible

“Prayer stands related to places, times, occasions and circumstances. It has to do with God and with everything which is related to God, and it has an intimate and special relationship to his House. A church is a sacred place, set apart from all unhallowed and secular uses, for the worship of God. As worship is prayer, the house of God is a place set apart for worship. It is no common place; it is where God dwells, where he meets with his people, and he delights in the worship of his saints.

Prayer is always in place in the house of God. When prayer is a stranger there, then it ceases to be God’s house at all.” E.M. Bounds

If we are to be a praying church, we must be praying individuals. If prayer is to be of highest priority as a church, it must be of highest priority as individuals. Throughout the ages, God established fixed places of worship where individuals would leave the ordinary activities of life to join together in the extraordinary activity of worship. Of course we can pray separately, but we can pray together too. And, even more, we should pray together. As we gather together, representatives of all peoples that the Lord has made full of joy by Christ’s sacrifice, we must pray so that the Lord’s house may fulfill the purpose for which is was established.