In The Gap

Recently, in my alone time with the Lord, I’ve been telling Him I am in need of prayer and encouragement. There have been several things on my heart I couldn’t quite talk about with other Christians, so these matters have been mulling around in my head and I found I could only put them into words while in the presence of God.

Have you ever been there? As if you have a whole list of prayer requests, yet you find yourself unable to bring them up with other believers?        

Well, last Friday, the Lord took my list and went through them one by one, and all I had to do was sit on the couch and listen.  

While attending my weekly Friday morning prayer group, the Lord placed it on my heart to pray for another woman in the group. Everyone quickly joined in the prayer and the Lord showed up in miraculous ways. As we were finishing our prayer, another group member said, “Lydia, I feel like we are supposed to pray for you”.

I was a little surprised, nervous and hesitant but also very grateful and eager to hear what the Lord had to say. What came next was God bringing to consciousness to several members of the group the things buried deep within me without me needing to say anything. They touched on every subject I only spoke about while alone with God. I sat there stunned, overwhelmed and filled to the brim with hope and encouragement.

Sometimes, I feel like faith can be so much “work”. Standing, decreeing, declaring, praying, fasting, binding, rebuking, reading, studying…in all honesty, it can be extremely exhausting. So, to have the Lord answer my need without me having to attempt to put my hearts desires into words showed me that God steps into the gap even when we’re too exhausted to stand in faith that He’ll step in.

This was a reminder that faith isn’t work, it’s relationship.

We give and He gives, we put time in and so does He. I needed this reminder that, yes, faith is occasionally difficult and time consuming, but God is there to answer our faith, our prayers, our hearts without us always having to work for it.

He sometimes simply causes a tree to spring up out of a seed we may not have planted, or till the ground where we thought we would need a rake or bring rain when we are about to go get the hose.

He does things for us in our obedience that we thought we would need to do for ourselves. He clears a path when we have clippers in our hands, He point us in the right direction right before we look at the compass. He knows what we need before we do and sometimes just places our “list” in front of us.

I know life is not always easy and everything we want may not always come to pass, but when we walk with the Lord, He knows exactly what we need when we need it and will always make sure we have it.

Find hope today in knowing your Lord knows your heart and your prayers will be answered. He has your list and will bring every single object on it right to you.

Stand in faith knowing your God will always stand in the gap for you.

“For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” –2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)