Standing in the Gap (and other devotionals)

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.  So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him (Isaiah 59:14-16).

God is not pleased at injustice nor when truth and righteousness do not prevail.   hen He sees those who turn from evil becoming a prey, He is not happy.

I remember a young man who an had lived a particularly sordid life.  He heard the gospel and had an amazing conversion experience.  Within a month or so of accepting Christ, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

What happened?  He departed from evil and became a prey!  God was not responsible for his situation, nor was He pleased.

Why did it happen?  At least part of the answer is found in verse 16.  There was no man serving as an intercessor.  No one was keeping a hedge of protection around that young man through prayer.

Before and after people turn from evil we need to intercede to God on their behalf.

I challenge you today to be one of those who stands in the gap and makes up the hedge for new babes in Christ.  May God find pleasure in you and me as we take our position as intercessors.

~Bayless Conley~

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Pray When You Don’t Feel Like It

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Many times we pray trying to impress someone in our group, but the early Christians weren’t trying to impress anybody. They were desperate. They prayed with intensity, fervency and specificity. They prayed to God, not to impress one another.

What have you learned about intense prayer? When you’re in a crisis, you learn how to pray with intensity, don’t you?

Many of us prayed this morning, but if I were to ask you, you couldn’t tell me with specificity what you prayed for. It was just a general prayer with no real intensity. I love Jeremiah 29:13, where God says, “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart." Sometimes we don’t feel like praying, so we say we’ll not pray.

ACTION POINT:

Don’t feel like praying? Continue in prayer until you do feel like it. Friend, if there’s ever a time that you need to pray, it’s when you don’t feel like it. 

~Adrian Rogers~

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1 John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God.

The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me." Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love Him because He first loved us." In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. The love which they felt towards the Lord was not a quiet emotion which they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls, and which they only spake of in their private assemblies when they met on the first day of the week, and sang hymns in honour of Christ Jesus the crucified, but it was a passion with them of such a vehement and all-consuming energy, that it was visible in all their actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of their eyes even in their commonest glances. Love to Jesus was a flame which fed upon the core and heart of their being; and, therefore, from its own force burned its way into the outer man, and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal and mark of all genuine Christians. Because of their dependence upon Christ's love they dared much, and because of their love to Christ they did much, and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love-the love of Christ constraineth them; they rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them, and then by force of gratitude they love the Saviour with a pure heart, fervently. My reader, do you love Him? Ere you sleep give an honest answer to a weighty question!

~Charles Spurgeon~

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He Always Listens

"The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer"   (Psalm 6:9).

The experience here recorded is mine. I can set to my seal that God is true. In very wonderful ways He has answered the prayers of His servant many and many a time. Yes, and He is hearing my present supplication, and He is not turning away His ear from me. Blessed be His holy name!

What then? Why, for certain the promise which lies sleeping in the psalmist's believing confidence is also mine. Let me grasp it by the hand of faith: "The LORD will receive my prayer." He will accept it, think of it, and grant it in the way and time which His loving wisdom judges to be best. I bring my poor prayer in my hand to the great King, and He gives me audience and graciously receives my petition. My enemies will not listen to me, but my LORD will. They ridicule my tearful prayers, but my LORD does not; He receives my prayer into His ear and His heart.

What a reception this is for a poor sinner! We receive Jesus, and then the LORD receives us and our prayers for His Son's sake. Blessed be that dear name which franks our prayers so that they freely pass even within the golden gates. LORD, teach me to pray, since Thou hearest my prayers.

~Charles Spurgeon~