Standing in The Gap

The Old Testament is full of examples of people who ‘stood in the gap’ before God and achieved amazing results for the people of Israel.  Here is a short list of a few of them:
1. Moses stood up before the Lord after Israel’s repeated idol worship (Ps. 106: 23)1
2. Phinehas stood up and intervened after the Israelites worshipped Baal (Ps. 106:23)1
3. Jael drove a tent peg through Israel’s enemy Sisera’s temple, thus defeating the foe (Judges 4:17-22)1
4. David was just a youth and he fought against and defeated the giant Goliath (I. Samuel 17)1
5. Nehemiah asked the Persian king Artaxerxes for a delegation to go and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:5)1
6. Esther went before King Xerxes at the risk of her life and pleaded for the Jews (Esther 5)1

We also see examples of brave ones who stood in the gap in the New Testament:
1.  John the Baptist called people to repent and be baptized.  He was arrest and beheaded for his efforts. 
2.  Saul persecuted Christians until his conversion on the road to Damascus.  God asks Ananias to go to the blind Saul and talk to him about Jesus and this brave man went.(Acts 9:11)1 
3. Others didn’t trust that Saul’s conversion was real but Barnabas went to him and discipled him. (Acts 9:26,27)1   

God states: “I looked for someone 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 no one. (Ezekiel 22:30)1 God is still looking for people to stand in the gap for the lost ones of our world. God loves the world and sent His son to redeem people but how “Can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14,15)1 So in these verses, we see that what is needed is a whole chain of ‘gap standers’ to get the job done.

One important way that we can all stand in the gap for others is to pray. Samuel tells the people of Israel this too. “ As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.” (I Sam. 12:23)1 Paul tells the Romans to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)1 In Colossians, Paul tells all of us to “2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ. . . 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” (Col 4: 2-4)1 giving us further guidance what and who to pray for. We should pray for open doors and for the workers to proclaim the Word clearly.  Whether we’re rich or poor or somewhere in the middle, we can pray that God will find a way to reach all the people of the world with His Word and the message of salvation. Whether we’re well educated or poorly educated, we can pray that Christians will proclaim the message clearly.  I came across a poem some time ago that puts this idea perfectly.

Traveling on My Knees
Last night I took a journey
To a land across the seas
I didn’t go by ship or plane—
I traveled on my knees.

I saw so many people there
In bondage to their sins,
And Jesus told me I should go
That there were souls to win.

But I said, “Jesus, I can’t go
To lands across the sea.”
He answered quickly, “Yes, you can—
By traveling on your knees.”

He said, “You pray, I’ll meet the need,
You call, and I will hear,
It’s up to you to be concerned
For lost souls far and near.”

And so I did, I knelt in prayer,
Gave up some hours of ease,
And with the Saviour by my side
I traveled on my knees.

As I prayed on, I saw souls saved
And twisted persons healed,
I saw God’s workers’ strength renewed
While laboring on the field.

I said, “Yes, Lord. I’ll take the job,
Your heart I want to please,
I’ll heed your call and swiftly go,
By traveling on my knees.”
author unknown

Will you do your part today? Will you go or give?  Will you travel on your knees and stand in the gap for God? 

One More Word for Today:
It is said that time flies. Did you ever wonder where time goes when it flies?  Just a week ago when I posted on my blog, it was 2021.  Today the new year 2022 is already five days old.  Wow!  That went fast. 

Do you remember June 3, 2020?  I do.  That’s the day I launched the A Listening Heart blog site with my first post.  A lot has transpired in our world since then.  We were only three months into the COVID-19 Corona virus pandemic when I posted my first post. We were beginning to emerge from world-wide lockdowns and we thought it would soon be over.  Yet here we are a year and a half later still in Covid’s grip.  So much has changed in the world and so much has stayed the same.

In that time, I’ve posted eighty-seven posts counting today’s.  I’ve shared experiences from my years as a missionary in three countries.  God has taught me so many lessons through many good times and some hard times and places too. I’ve shared both these and insights from God’s Word.  Before I began blogging, God impressed on my heart that I had learned much from my life experiences and He wanted me to tell what I had learned to others.  For a long time, I thought that would take the form of a book.  Then a friend challenged me to write a weekly blog and A Listening Heart blog was born. Now my notebook of stories and ideas to write about is empty.  In the beginning, the Lord impressed on me that He wanted me to get my stories ‘out there’.  I chose a blog format to do that but now the time has come to close the blog.  If God impresses on me another idea or two that He wants me to write up, I’ll do that but for today, it ends here.  Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 7: “1There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 7a time to be silent and a time to speak.”1 When God impressed on me to write up my stories and led me to use the blog format, He didn’t ask me to write a blog forever.  He asked me to get my stories and lessons out.  I have done that and now I will stop. Thank you, dear readers, for your faithful following of what I have written and for your encouraging words.  They have meant a lot to me. If you want to revisit any of the previous posts, go to https://alisteningheartdotcom.wordpress.com.  On the right side of the opening page there are four words: Home  Blog  About  Contact. Just click on ‘Blog’ and you can revisit one or all of the eighty-seven posts.

It has been a great year and a half. Thanks again for joining me on the journey and good bye for now. 

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1All Scripture references quoted in this post are from the New International Version.