Will He Recognize His House of Prayer?

“I will bring them to My holy mountain and let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:7
 
Jesus would famously quote this passage as He drove out those who had turned the temple into a marketplace (Mark 11:17). He understood the stakes. The chief priests would side with Jesus’ enemies and collaborate to kill Him. But those were not the stakes with which Jesus was reckoning. “The nations” would not be reached and God’s people would not have joy if commerce rather than prayer marked the temple.
 
The early church would fulfill Jesus’ prophetic expectation as they “devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 2:42), and a pattern would be established for all Christians even to this day. Would Jesus recognize the joy of prayer and the reach to the nations in our churches today? Would He recognize it in your church?
 
May the Church be recognizable as a “house of prayer for the nations” in which we “rejoice!”