God said, “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 no one”(Ezekiel22:30 NIV).
“Well, I guess the only thing left to do is pray about it.”How many times have I heard those words? How many times have they slipped past my lips? But what if we looked at prayer from a different perspective…God’s perspective? What if we viewed prayer as our first course of action rather than a last resort?
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 29:16, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘You did not make me’? Can the pot say to the potter, ‘you know nothing’?”
God is the Master Potter, and He certainly doesn’t need you or me to tell Him how to shape and mold the people that we are praying for. Oh, we’d like to. That’s for sure.But God’s ultimate goal is for each lump of clay to be fashioned according to His design and for His purposes, not ours. “We are the clay, you are the potter,” Isaiah writes, “we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). I am. You are. Whoever you are praying for today is. God shapes and molds. You pray and intercede.
Regardless of where your marriage, your children, or your family fall on the continuum of terrific to tolerable to terrible, there is always room for improvement. Prayer can make a bad situation good and a good situation great.
James warns about the danger of praying with wrong motives (James 4:3). Check your desire to control at the door of the prayer closet and don’t let it in.
Ezekiel gives us a glimpse into the heart of God regarding prayer. Israel had sinned in every possible way, and her people were doomed for destruction. God said, “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).
God looked for someone to pray, to intercede, to stand in the gap for Israel, but there was no one.Today God is looking for people who will stand in the gap for their husbands, children, friends, family, and nation. I’m so glad He has found such a man/woman in you.
Fay-Ann Swearing
fayannswearing.wordpress.com
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