I go to a friend’s bible study on Saturdays. His are my favorite ones to attend. My husband laughs at me because at one point this year I was attempting to keep up with three different bible studies at once. One with the church I used to attend, one with my close friend that lives down the street, and one on my own.
I have narrowed it down to two. I’m studying my chronological study bible, a book that I truly feel is my best friend, and I’m also attending a Bible study on Saturdays.
I love the word of God. I especially love learning new things like the meanings of words in the bible, the historical context and where the writer was when they wrote certain verses and chapters.
When I go to the Saturday Bible studies we read through scriptures and talk about what certain words mean in Hebrew and how one series of scriptures relates to another in the Old and New Testament.
A few weeks ago my friend prepared a lesson for us. The verse that he went over was Psalm 20.
“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
May the name of God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.”
I had heard this verse before.
I think I even used it a few times while writing well wishes on gift cards for new graduates.
I was excited to receive a new interpretation of this scripture. He had us read through all of it. (There’s more to it, but the part that I typed above is the part that really stood out to me.
He learned Hebrew and helped us to understand that everytime the word “you” or “your” was used, it was used in the masculine, singular form of the word.
It became apparent that this was a prophetic prayer for Jesus, the coming messiah.
We then re-read the whole verse exchanging the words “you” and “your” for Jesus’s name.
That completely changed the context and meaning of the whole verse!
(I will be sure to not use it so flippantly next time!)
I was in awe of the prayer.
How beautiful of David to pray for the coming Messiah.
I wonder if he was already in prayer when God put all of that on his heart to pray over Jesus?
The empathy. The foresight. I feel like that could only be inspired by God.
This awoke something inside of me, something I think God was already trying to show me.
The Prayer Exchange
Before I went to that bible study, I felt like God had been telling me to stop gossiping. Even listening to gossip, he wanted me to have nothing to do with it.
It was one of those exchanging fake pearls for the real thing kinda moments. (Check out the parable of the fake pearls, if you don’t know what I’m talking about!)
I knew in the deepest part of my heart that God was telling me to stop for MY own good and that I needed to surrender the level of control that I think I have when I talk about a situation.
At first, I didn’t know gossiping was an issue for me. But, I’m not gonna pretend to be snow white here. As time went on I realized that it was hard to hold my tongue or to not let my curiosity get the best of me. And also, there are things that I do want to talk about with an emotional fervor, things that really do matter to me. Problems I feel like I NEED to fix.
I usually only discuss my true feelings on these issues with my husband, my beautifully handsome and extra tall chamber of secrets.
I caught myself doing this one day.
I was riding along in my husband’s truck and I was laying out all of my grievances and concerns about a relationship conflict, something I knew in my heart was not okay. I was very upset. As I was talking to him I heard the holy spirit very gently tell me, “stop”.
So I stopped. I got really quiet. I told him I can’t talk about it anymore because I wasn’t supposed to…
Then I had this impression, like a warm hand on my chest.
I asked him if we could pray.
I prayed over the situation and as I did tears flowed from my eyes.
It felt like a release.
We didn’t talk much about it anymore.
Well, he and I didn’t. A few days later, I was talking to my mom and she had brought up the topic. She had her share of concerns too.
She didn’t tell me this, but I could pick up by listening that she had wanted to maintain a level of control over the situation as well.
I understood that her desire to control was rooted in fear, and I had deep compassion for her.
I told her about what happened to me that night in Josh’s truck and I told her that all we could do was pray.
So we prayed.
This time both of us cried.
They weren’t sad tears though.
At first, it felt like a sacrifice. Like I was laying down this great burden at the feet of Jesus. A weight I had been carrying for way too long.
And then, as I continued praying my stance on the situation began to change. I cried deeply, tears that felt more determined than they were sad.
At that moment I felt like I was holding tightly to a hope. A hope I couldn’t see yet, but one I knew I couldn’t let go!
As I continued praying I started seeing visions and I started speaking good things about our family based on what I know God was showing me.
I prayed things that I had never considered praying before!
I not only prayed for healing, I prayed for restoration and I saw the end of what that would look like for everyone, including myself.
It felt as though God had exchanged all of my fears and anxieties for a deep revelation of his power and his ability to turn the situation around completely!
The darkness that once weighed me down was quickly being overtaken by God’s incredible power and light.
I gave him my fears and doubts, and in exchange God showed me a whole new side to that story, one in which we see victory. I could see and was able to experience how God’s goodness will triumph over the evil that is in this world, not only in the present, but YEARS down the road.
I watched it all play out in my head while I prayed.
When I left that day, I felt lighter.
Now, when fear creeps in and my thoughts go to a dark place regarding that situation I begin to pray.
Not just any prayers, prophetic prayers.
The things that God showed me the day I prayed with my mom in her kitchen, I pray and speak them again, and I mean them with my whole heart. Every single time my mind leans toward anxiety and fear, I stop those thoughts and I start praying prophetically over that situation.
There’s peace now where there was once anxiousness. I no longer desire to control the situation, or enter myself into the equation, not minding my own business.
I have taken a stance and my position has remained unmoved.
I feel like God brought these things back to my memory after I re-read this verse at the Bible study.
David was given this prophetic prayer to pray over the coming messiah that would be born hundreds of years down the road.
A messiah that would be born in a generation that David would never know.
That’s how I feel when I pray about this situation and the effect it might have on anybody close to me. I pray for my family members and all of their kids as they interact and go about their day-to-day lives here in the present, as well as in a generation I will never know.
Standing in the Gap
I heard a pastor once tell a story about how his grandma would pray for him while he was still a boy, long before she ever knew he would become a pastor. He said she would pray for him and her family for hours!
In Christian circles, we call that intercessory prayer aka “standing in the gap”.
Google defines that phrase as “to act as a mediator, protector or advocate for someone or something that is vulnerable or in need.”
His grandma stood in the gap for a grandson that would lead men and women out of sin with a heart of compassion and courage, even though he had gone wayward early on in his life.
I wonder what she saw when she prayed for him. What did she speak over his life? Did she see him ministering to young men and women that had forgotten their value? Did she see him opening a church that would draw in a people outcasted by society?
Whatever she prayed, God was faithful to her.
God was faithful to her in the same way he was faithful to David as he became inspired to pray for Jesus, the future messiah. He stood in the gap for Jesus, and he did not even know the context in which his prayers would be answered. He couldn’t have understood the generation that Jesus would have been born into because Israel was so different while David was alive vs. when Jesus was born.
While David was alive he was a successful warrior and king. Israel was a great nation and its armies were strong. They were known to have a mighty God working on their behalf.
Did David know that after his time was over the people of Israel would take other gods for themselves, propelling the nation into destruction? Did he see that the cities he once knew and loved would be destroyed, or that his people would live in exile, overtaken by the Assyrians, Babylon, the Persians, the Greeks, and then Rome?
Did God show him that the messiah would be born under Roman rule or that God’s people in Jesus’s time would be oppressed by city leaders AND religious tyrants?
I don’t know if he did. Yet, he mediated for Jesus so that while he was here on earth he would receive help from God in his time of need.
He stood in the gap.
He interceded and spoke to God on Jesus’s behalf.
I don’t know what the future will look like for my children, nephews, nieces, friend’s kids, or for any of their children. I don’t know what the cultural norms will be in their generation, or what society will try to tell them is right and wrong. I pray for them though. I pray that they are a light in the darkness, prophets to the nations in their generation, and that they always keep Jesus on the throne of their hearts.
I pray that God makes his presence known to them and helps them in their time of need while they’re in the thick of it. And when all of us, the people that helped raise and shape them, are just a memory, I pray for them to receive God’s help long after we’re gone.
I believe God has me praying for them as well as my loved ones that I know are currently hurting or in need of God’s help. It is a continuous ministry. I don’t sit helplessly by, not knowing how to help them, and I don’t try to fix things in my own ability. I pray and let the holy spirit show me what to do next.
This has completely changed my perspective of my role as a child of God.
I used to think that when I grew up I would need to do something obviously important. That I needed to have a level of prominence or fame in order to be useful in the kingdom of God.
I know that isn’t true anymore.
I am meant to be obedient.
I am meant to pray.
I am meant to love like Jesus.
Loving Like Jesus = Praying Like Jesus
In Hebrews 7:25 it reads, “Therefore He (Jesus) is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
The Bible states here that Jesus intercedes on our behalf.
There is somebody from the Old Testament that offers a beautiful example of this intercession. His name was Moses.
Moses was in the middle of receiving the law that would set Israel apart from other nations, the law that would set them apart so they would be a holy nation. He received these instructions on top of Mt. Sinai for many days. He was up there for so long that the Israelites started getting impatient. In the middle of their meeting, God told Moses to go back down the mountain because the Israelites were already breaking the law and acting like the same people who had enslaved them!
So Moses went down the mountain. He saw the people worshipping the gods THEY created with the wealth God had delivered into their hands. He got angry at the Israelites but he wasn’t as angry as God was with them.
The Bible says that God wanted to destroy the Israelites, to start over again with just Moses and his family like he had with Noah. Moses talked him out of it, saying, “why let the Egyptians say, ‘their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains.’”
He told God, “remember your promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
This did not mean that Moses agreed with the Israelite’s rebellion.
Moses rebuked the Israelites and it wasn’t pretty!
Then Moses returned to the mountaintop. He prayed and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Israelites. He told God, “Oh what a terrible sin these people have committed, they have made gods of gold for themselves, But now if you will only forgive their sin, but if not, erase my name from the record you have written.”
Why was Moses able and willing to “stand in the gap” for the Israelites? Because he had previously spent all of that time in God’s presence on the mountain! You become like the people you spend time with and Moses reflected the merciful love of the father here!
This moment in time is a shadow of the son of God that would later come down and atone for the sins of all of his people.
This is what Jesus did for us and this gives us a picture of what he is still doing for us.
Jesus is the part of God that came down to earth and endured the same temptations and trials that we have to endure so that he would understand our struggles.
What a merciful God!
Instead of leaving us and saying “sucks to suck! Sorry ‘bout ya!” He showed compassion for us by sending Jesus who came down to our level, took our place in hell so we wouldn’t have to go there, and he STILL empathizes with us as he stands before the throne of God on our behalf.
In the same way Moses prayed for the lives of the Israelites to be redeemed and offered his life in exchange, Jesus laid his life down for us and continues to “stand in the gap” for us.
We reflect the love of Jesus too when we come before God with our petitions, not only for ourselves, but with the needs of people who may need someone to come to Jesus for them on their behalf. We offer our own sacrifice when we lay it all down in surrender at the feet of Jesus.
Praying in Victory
I know that when God told me to stop gossiping that was his way of guiding me towards surrender.
He showed me that by releasing control of my burdens and fears, and by laying them down at his feet, then that would leave space in my heart and mind for real change to happen.
And it did.
I talk to God about everything now. When I’m struggling with insecurity, I lay it at the feet of Jesus. If I am needing help in my marriage, I lay my concerns down at the feet of my heavenly father. When I’m wrestling with a conflict and I want to act out in anger or frustration, or even in judgement, I am learning to let it go.
Some things are easier to let go than others.
I know God is showing me a new way to be, though. As HIS child, my walk in life will look different than what I was used to. It will be different to what culture says is normal.
I feel like the more I get to know God the more I realize how anti-christ Culture has become.
Especially Church Culture.
I grew up in a church, so I’ve seen many people navigate various stages of their walk with God.
I’ve seen some people give their lives to God and it is a beautiful gift to be a witness to that. I have also seen some people miss the mark.
And then I’ve seen people respond to that.
Some handle other people’s shortcomings with sincere kindness and grace.
Some people are not so sincere, and not so kind.
Some people don’t act at all…
I feel like each person’s response comes from their own deep convictions.
And that’s fine. But I have some of my own.
I was having dinner with my friends the other night and we landed on the topic of judgement. One of them mentioned that if someone is unwise or in need of correction God will likely not use you to help them because they won’t receive from you. I understood where she was coming from. Sometimes people have been hurt or are hard-hearted and they won’t take criticism or correction from those closest to them.
I get that.
But I feel like I’ve heard that so many times and it never sits well with me. I feel like it’s a church-ism. It’s one of those statements that a church can believe if one person says it from the pulpit. It’s right there alongside “you love people, but you don’t have to like them.”
Those are things that I grew up hearing but there’s something deep inside of me that WANTS to challenge it.
It isn’t in my nature to do that, either. Anybody that knows me knows that I’m not one to go out looking for a good argument. I like peace. The lack of it makes me want to leave the conversation. But there are times when the lack of peace makes me want to bring peace to the situation, and the only way I can do that is through expressing my opinions and revelations on the subject.
So, after hearing her saying that, even though I knew she meant it with the best of intentions, something inside of me shifted.
One of my other friends mentioned that it’s better to separate yourself from someone you know is going down a different path than you. Which again, I see the wisdom in that. Don’t hang out with fools or scoundrels or you yourself will become like them (Prov 13:20). Don’t try to fix people or try to be their savior. I understand all of this on a very deep level.
Which is why I KNOW it is not that black and white when someone you love deeply is headed for the cliff.
I still remember being in college and telling my mom that I was worried about one of my close friends. I felt like she was drifting from God, and that maybe I shouldn’t hang around her as much.
She told me, “It’s the love of God that brings men back to repentance, mija. Just keep showing her the love of God”.
My mom always taught us not to judge, and I know that is why my siblings and I have soft hearts for people.
Now that I’m a mom though, knowing what I know, if it were my daughter coming to me for advice in a situation like that I would handle things a little differently. I would start by telling her what my mom told me, but I would add that I think it is wise to create some space there. I think it’s wise for her to not hang with people that are going down a road she knows isn’t good for her. I would even add that she should live in a way that SHOWS God love.
One of my favorite poems is The Sermon we See by Edgar Guest.
I would hope to guide her to be a girl whose life speaks louder than her words.
In saying that, I am stating that I agree with both friends. Creating space might be good and don’t get preachy, but live in a way that represents God.
I would add one more very important element—and this is where my conviction comes in strongly—I would encourage her to get on her knees and start praying.
I would encourage her that if she feels as if her friend is being pulled into darkness, pulled in a direction that isn’t good for her, then maybe God has placed her in that friend’s life so she can stand in the gap for her.
I wouldn’t put that task on her like a heavy burden for her to carry. That wouldn’t be my intention. Instead, I’d want to teach her HOW to lay it down. And how in laying it down she is giving it to a loving father that can do way more with it than she can on her own.
I’d want to teach her that we’re not passive Christians that jump from one imperfect friend to another. We are brothers and sisters in Christ and we don’t give up on each other.
I’d teach her how to respond to the devil when he tries to come at her people.
I’d tell her, from experience, that when she prays for others God will do a beautiful work in her heart and mind first. He will take her into a deeper level of his love.
And also…if she doesn’t see a change in them for weeks, months, or even years, she should continue to pray anyway. It doesn’t have to be for hours. It can be brief, but I would educate her to keep standing in the gap because we’re on heaven’s team. We don’t watch helplessly as people we care about drift half-hazardly from the narrow road. We don’t go with them either! And we especially don’t carry the weight of their choices.
We pray for them and let God do a work in their heart.
One of my favorite sayings is that God has so much compassion for each of us because he knows our WHOLE story.
God will have to walk some roads with those people, roads that we were not meant to follow. So we pray that God helps them to navigate those seasons and that he heals the wounds of their hearts.
I would pray with her.
I would remind her that when she leaves all of that in HIS hands she will see a victory.
How do I know this?
At the end of Psalm 20 it says,
“May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God.”
This is also prophetic except this time it’s about us, the followers of Jesus.
A banner represents the head of the unit. It indicates the position that we have chosen.
A banner was used in times of battle, but it is also used in times of peace. Here it’s used to celebrate victory.
God fulfilled all of the requests in David’s prophetic prayer which means this declaration at the end of Psalm 20 is also true for us!
We can pray and hold fast to our faith because we are always coming from a place of victory. In every situation, even the ones that look helpless, we will see God’s hand at work.
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My prayer for you is that you continue to stand in faith, no matter the situation, continuing to bring your prayers and petitions to God for yourselves, your loved ones, in the present and in future generations to come, knowing full and well that in the end we WILL shout with joy over the victory.
If you would like prayer for anything, please feel free to comment or email me. I would love to lift you and your situation up to our incredible God. I truly believe and am witness to how he can turn any situation around.
He promises us this in Romans 8:28:
”And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”