IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 21:22

First, prayer (12-13). The temple in Jesus' time was a place of continuous prayer. Are you praying "without ceasing?" (1Th 5:16-18) The discipline of prayer must be learned. Through life's hardships we are trained to be "like a weaned child with its mother" (Ps 131:2) - we learn that "in quietness and confidence is your strength" (Isa 30:15).

Second, the temple of God (14-17). "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1Co 3:16) "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit ...You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body" (1Co 6:18-20). God's people form the temple of God.

Third, prayer from the temple in faith (18-22). Christians collectively are "God's temple." Our individual bodies are each also a "temple of the Holy Spirit." Yet, in our weakness "we do not know what we ought to pray for" (Ro 8:26). Thanks be to God that "the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Ro 8:26). When prayer is offered from God's temple, trusting in God's will, there is nothing that God will not do.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, thank you so much for praying without ceasing in me. Lord, you "ever live to make intercession" for the saints. Discipline me so that I may join and rejoice in your unceasing prayer.

One Word: Pray without ceasing.