The Lord’s Prayer – Hillsong Worship

I am not too sure why praying is the last resort for most of us who serve in ministry because it is so essential to living in the kingdom of God.

And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”  – Mark 11:17  ESV

Even though this verse offered a rebuke, it also offered us an insight to how Jesus viewed the traditions of worship in relationship to the law. He did not come to destroy it but to fulfill it. As long as the temple remained He honoured it and encouraged His disciples to do so. He kept its feasts, and taught and healed those who came to worship. This act of cleansing came because of the act of desecration they had committed to an appointed house of prayer.

Isaiah actually quoted these words first:

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.” – Isaiah 56:6-7  ESV

What is the body language of my ministry? A ministry becomes a praying ministry by praying.

Jesus statement to me, especially in my role as a fund-raiser, is to ensure that I do not use religious acts of worship to gain financial resources. At the same time, in my act of ministry, I am to focus on calling His people to a true relationship with God. A relationship that flows from prayer and intimacy.