A house of prayer for all people
Christine Colliar
August 18, 2026
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Listen to this daily worship
Isaiah 56: 1-8 (NIV-UK)
1 This is what the Lord says:
‘Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed is the one who does this –
the person who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keeps their hands from doing any evil.’3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’
And let no eunuch complain,
‘I am only a dry tree.’4 For this is what the Lord says:
‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant –
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure for ever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant –
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.’
8 The Sovereign Lord declares –
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
‘I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.’
The doors are open.
Not just for people who look like us, think like us, or come from where we come from. God’s house is larger than that.
Isaiah hears God say, Maintain justice and do what is right. Justice begins by recognising the image of God in every person. Justice grows whenever we choose fairness over convenience, generosity over fear, welcome over suspicion.
The world can feel divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’. God keeps drawing the circle wider.
Every purchase we make. Every conversation we have. Every vote we cast. Every voice we choose to listen to. They all help shape the kind of world we are building.
God’s house has room for all people.
The question is whether our hearts do too.
Prayer:
Lord,
widen my heart
as you widen your welcome.
Give me humility and curiosity
to learn from other cultures
and other ways of seeing the world.
Remind me
that the choices I make each day
affect the lives of people
I may never meet.
May I live
with justice,
generosity,
and compassion,
so that your love
reaches further through me.
Amen
What can I do? Write a prayer to strengthen global connections for a situation currently in the news.
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