Thankful in November: We Have the Opportunity to Stand in the Gap

Today I am thankful for intercession.

I am thankful that God allows us to be a part of His big plan. 

We have been given a gift.  We get to boldly enter the throne room of God and plead for good things for those we love.  We can plead for righteousness.  Favor.  Mercy and Kindness. 

We can stand in the gap. 

"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."  Ezekiel 22:30

What if your prayers prevented destruction in another's life?  What if you stood in the gap?

Do you know someone caught in a web?  What if your prayers set them free of entanglement before the great enemy wraps so tightly that death is inevitable?

You are powerful.  Your prayers are effective and fervent.  They are very powerful.  They avail much.  {The enemy will tell you that your prayers aren't powerful because you can't always see the results, but I assure you, they are working.}



I heard this definition of mercy by Tozer and I can't get it out of my head:  actively compassionate.  The blind man in Luke 18:38 begged Jesus for mercy because he knew that mercy would move him to action.  We don't just need a savior who will pity us.  We hunger and thirst for one who will look down on us in remembrance and do something about our plight.

Jesus is that Savior.

The Hebrew word for intercession is "paga."  It means to entreat, encounter, meet, reach.  It is a meeting with an outcome.  I like that.

Every time you and God meet on behalf of the good of someone else, there is an outcome.

Remind God of His Word.  All of the promises of God are yes in Christ.

"God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer; for what He has promised, He is able to perform." {Henry}

Today I am thankful for intercession because it makes me less selfish.

And I need all the help I can get with that.

Bonhoeffer would phrase it this way...Intercessory prayer is a purifying bath in which we slowly scrub away the selfishness that keeps us from being like Jesus.

Will you stand in the gap today?