Dear Priest is a series to encourage those who serve in the house of prayer, whether as missionaries or volunteers. God has much to say specifically to those who minister to Him in His house!
I don’t know a single intercessory missionary who hasn’t experienced pushback from friends and family over their calling. It’s not an easy thing for most people to understand.
- “So you just… pray? Do you guys do homeless outreach or anything?”
- “Why do you want to live off charity? Maybe you should get a real job and just pray at work.”
- “That’s great, but I’d rather give to something more tangible.”
- “Everyone is going to be there; can’t you just skip prayer room and come?”
- “I read on the internet that the house of prayer is a cult.”
Yeah, it’s not fun to hear. We learn to smile and brush it off, but it’s always at least a little bit hurtful and frustrating.
David dealt with similar pushback. According to Psalm 69, he endured a lot of opposition while building the house of prayer.
“For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
(Psalm 69:7-9)
David’s own family rejected him because of his prioritization of God’s presence. He also mentions his “folly” and “wrongs” in this Psalm (Ps. 69:5), which suggests that his family and even the broader community were focusing only on his weakness and failure, and weren’t seeing his calling like God was. God put this passion in his heart, accepted David’s repentance for all of his sins, and was so delighted in David’s zeal to build Him a place of continual worship.
This zeal led him to some pretty radical commitments (Ps. 132:3-5). David was so disturbed that God didn’t have a proper resting place that he refused to rest until the house of prayer was built. He bore the reproach of living an unbalanced, impractical, hyperfocused life in order to build a place for God’s presence.
As laborers in the house of prayer today, we may face similar accusation. Many people, including believers close to us, may not understand our zeal for the house of the Lord. Like David, we may be seen as overzealous, irrational, overly spiritual, etc.
It’s okay. We’re not doing it for them. Like David, we keep our eyes fixed on the one who sees us: “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.” (Ps. 69:13)
What they call overzealous, God calls appropriate zeal.
What they call irrational, God calls wisdom.
What they call a waste, God calls beautiful.
God knew that sometimes our own brothers, spiritual and natural, wouldn’t be supportive of what He has called us to do in building His house. He gave us David’s life as an example long ago. Don’t let the discouragement of misunderstanding and unsupportiveness knock you down.
I have two final encouragements for us:
One, do it before the eyes of Jesus. It’s okay if they don’t understand. Bear the reproach. The apostles rejoiced that they were “counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” (Ac. 5:41) We can rejoice in our lightweight persecution of misunderstanding. He sees.
Two, He really is building His global house of prayer! Before this thing is over, His house really will be called a house of prayer (Isa. 56:7). You’re on the right side of history; you’re just in the early wave. They will get it eventually, and they will be so grateful for those who went before them.