I have a problem saying this but I have to be honest with you. Jesus said that His house is to be a house of prayer. I would have been satisfied if He had said, "My house is to be a house of preaching." But He didn't say that — I've looked. He didn't say His house should be a house of music, or of Christian education, or of missions. He said, "My house is to be a house of prayer." To put this right, prayer drives preaching, music, education and missions. In the modern church, we have it backwards. We think if we do our programs right and put a little prayer around to decorate it, we'll make it. According to Jesus, you pray, connect with the father, then the things we do as the people of God take on the countenance and power of God.

The second thing Jesus teaches us about prayer is the transfusing power of prayer. I love summer, and think it is the greatest of all seasons. Growing up in Florida, we had nine months of summer and a few months of spring. We never had winter. Summer is special for many reasons, especially for the flowers. We recently bought some hanging baskets with cascading flowers to hang on our deck. We were having dinner outside when I noticed the flowers were wilting because they needed water. The morning after watering the flowers, they were as bright and beautiful as they could be because we had transfused them with water.

The Regency Hyatt in Atlanta was the first building John Portman built with a multi-storied atrium. It is common architecture now but when it opened, it was revolutionary. I met a friend for lunch there one day, and as I was waiting, I noticed that at each balcony, the plants at the upper stories were longer than the plants on the lower stories. I then noticed a glass top on the building and the plants at the top were getting more sunlight than those at the bottom. You can't have any kind of greenery without sunlight or water. But those of us in the modern church think that we go through life without ever having to water or nourish our spirits. I watch church people burn out all the time because church work is hard work. They burn out because they never nourish their spirits. They get off message because they don't nourish themselves.

In the text I read, Jesus had been teaching and healing. It had been a tough day. They had gone through all the villages in the middle and northern parts of Israel. Then in the morning the disciples got up, ready to go again, and they couldn't find Jesus. There was panic. If you read under the text, Simon Peter was panicked; he probably thought Jesus had deserted them or had been kidnaped by the scribes and Pharisees or by the Roman government. They went outside and found Jesus in a quiet place praying. Simon Peter had the audacity to chastise Jesus. Jesus' response to Simon Peter was simple, "We're going to the other villages where I must preach also. I'm out here praying to get the power I need to do the work of God. We are going to continue to do the work God called us to do because out of this prayer experience, I will know where I am to go next."