Focus

Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.

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Read

John 2:13-22 (NRSV)

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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Reflect

Although the Old Testament is full of the wrath of God, today’s passage is one of few where we see the wrath of Jesus. Jesus was obviously upset and even appalled at what the Temple had become. The people of Israel had taken what was supposed to be a place of worship and turned it into a marketplace. It had become a place of greed rather than worship. Jesus made a whip and drove out those who defiled the house of God.

If Jesus were to put the whip to our lives, what would he drive out? Let us remember that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit. So today, let’s take a good look at ourselves as a temple. Have we made a marketplace of God’s temple? What things in our lives do we need Jesus to drive out? May we have the courage to allow Jesus to do just that.

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Pray

Dear Lord, help me to see the error of my ways and the things that I have brought into my life that separate me from your will and your way. Please drive these things from my life and help me to follow the path of righteousness today and every day. Amen.

Go with God.