Tuesday, August 20th, 2024
I love coming across verses that I have highlighted in my Bible. These are the verses that have been significant at some point in my life, and it seems that they never lose their ability to stir up my faith or remind me of an area I need to focus on. Every once in a while, when I come across a highlighted verse, the verse either before it or after it seems to stand out in a whole new way. It’s like graduating from only needing milk to needing meat. That additional verse adds a whole new layer to the equation. Perhaps it’s a condition that needs to be met, an additional blessing or another promise stemming from the highlighted verse. Recently that happened while I was reading Matthew 21:12-14:
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
The verses I had highlighted were verses 12 and 13. This is one of those examples of Jesus’ perfect righteous anger. Jesus knew they were disgracing the temple of God and He was not going to just stand there and let them continue. Imagine what this would have looked like if we had experienced that moment for ourselves. There would have been a lot of unhappy and offended people. But I bet that God’s presence and love would have been palpable in that moment. And this is where verse 14 comes alive. After Jesus evicted that which was blocking the flow of God’s presence it made a way for healing to flow. The scripture says the blind and the lame came to Him and were healed.
Immediately I saw this as a reflection of our own lives. Maybe there is something we need from God, like healing or breakthrough or a fulfilled promise. We keep praying and asking, but it’s still not in our grasp. Is it possible there is something going on in the temple (remember, now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit) that is blocking the flow of God? Maybe we need to overturn some unrighteous tables in our own minds and souls. Maybe we need to first drive out some lies from the enemy that we have been believing.
Final Thoughts…
Let’s take some time today to ask God if there are any tables in our temple that need to be turned over so we can make way for His healing and provision to flow. It could be something as simple as some stinkin’ thinkin’ that we need to take captive, a sin that we need to repent (turn completely) from or perhaps a curse in our generational line that we need to sever. Once we ask God, let’s make sure we take the time to listen and then deal with that thing with the same righteous anger that Jesus had. Whatever the cost, it’s worth the effort.