Unwavering Conformity: A 21-day Study in StewardshipSample

Houses of Prayer; Houses of Light

In anticipation of temple construction, David offers a remarkable prayer, a prayer that serves as a template or model for each of us as God's stewards. The prophet Isaiah later refers to that very temple as God's 'house of prayer' (Isa 56:7). And David himself anticipates that reality, declaring in Psalm 18:6, 'In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.' A house of prayer.

In Psalm 18:28, David uses imagery that permeates Scripture, saying, 'My God turns my darkness into light.' An unmistakable message. A house of light. Pastor John Timmer relates a simple story about a house in need of light:

“Once upon a time a man lived in a house without a window. Naturally, it was very dark inside his house. One day he said to himself, 'I'm sick and tired of living in a dark house. I want to get rid of the darkness. I want light instead of darkness.'

So what did he do? He took a large pail, filled it with darkness, carried it outside, and emptied it. Then we went back into the house and did the same thing all over again. He filled the pail with darkness, carried it outside, and emptied it. He did this all day. But by the end of the day his house was just as dark as it had always been.

Then the man said to himself, 'This isn't going to work. This is not the way to get rid of the darkness. There must be another way. But how?'

That night he went to bed, very tired and very sad. But when he woke up the next morning, the answer came to him. 'Now I know how to get rid of the darkness,' he said. He took a big hammer, knocked a big hole in the outside wall, and made a window. Through this window the bright sunlight came pouring into his house.”

Our lives are like a house without a window. It's dark inside. To make it light inside, we need a window, a window through which God's light will come pouring into our lives.

Prayer is such a window. Without prayer our lives are dark. With prayer, our lives are light. Each time we pray, God's light comes pouring into our lives.

Today God dwells in clay houses (see 2 Co 4:7) - houses that nonetheless reflect his glory to a sin-darkened world. Like breath, the light not only pours in but gets exhaled right back out! Houses of light; houses of prayer.