Temple cleaning

Mark 11:12-19

I am so accustomed to this story of Jesus cleansing the temple that I sometimes read over it without taking any time really to think. I am part of a world that loves convenience more than God. I know that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and there is no longer a specific attachment between any building and holiness. But honestly, that makes this an even bigger issue. Jesus quotes, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." If that was an issue when dealing with a physical temple, how much more so when dealing with my heart?

Is my heart a place of prayer? Or is it a "den of robbers"? Perhaps I am not scheming about how to rip people off. But I may steal the devotion that is rightly due to God by filling up my time with marketplace activities, my thoughts with business ideas, my heart with visions of personal glory. This cannot be permitted. The holy God has made me holy, His holy servant. I am utterly devoted to Him, and my activities, thoughts and heart are utterly His.