Standing in the Gap: Prayer Guide

By Louise Graves

Every Christian that has given their heart to God begins a journey with Him. The excitement of our first steps with the Lord propels us forward. After a time, we hit some rough roads and seem to get stuck in the ruts of life. We begin to question our faith, our belief in Christianity in general. We try, we work, we hope-we do everything we can think of, and still we are stuck-and then, we pray, as if this is our last resort. God never promised that we would not face problems, just that He would always be with us. Challenge: If you really believe that what you believe is really true, you could change the world. This book was written to help believers to pray first-before all else. We have been given the authority and the privilege to speak to our God through the gate that Jesus opened for us. The Word tells to come to the throne of grace confidently where we will receive mercy and grace in our time of need. So how do we do this? God hears our cry for help-the Bible says to ask. Then we are instructed to seek. Seeking is finding God's will, His truth in His Word-we seek His Word in the Bible. This Word is a promise from God, and we stand on that truth. Finally, He instructs us to knock. Knocking is simply speaking God's promises back to Him. When we have done this, we stand-we trust and wait for God's perfect timing and His perfect plan. This book will help you find some of those precious promises in the Bible. Let's see what God can do. Our part is to believe He can!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643009032

Book preview

Introduction:

Why Did We Write These Prayers?

Prayer is simply conversations with God—spending time with our Lord. The apostles never asked Jesus how to preach a sermon or teach a Bible class. What they did ask him was, Teach us how to pray.

As a child I had learned to memorize prayers and say them over and over again. When I was born again, the Bible was opened to me for the first time when I was over forty years old. I had never opened a Bible, let alone read it. But I purchased my first Bible and jumped in.

This book contained words of life that began to come alive in my spirit. This marvelous book was filled with hope and direction. It taught me about faith, hope, and grace. I searched these scriptures, and the words changed me. I was like a sponge soaking up the sermons every Sunday. I signed up for Bible studies. Through the years, the Bible has become my main reading material. I read it daily. It is my daily bread.

Several years ago, I sat at a table with a group of women in a Bible study. As we followed the video teaching, we were led to many Scriptures. The women in the group were overwhelmed by the sheer number of passages that we were supposed to study, and in frustration, the women admitted that they did not know where most of the books of the Bible were found. I began to question these ladies. Four out of five of the ladies admitted that they had never read through the Bible. What a surprise this was for me. These are women who had grown up in church. One of the ladies had played the organ and sang in church almost her whole life. They admitted they did not know the Bible.

This was revelation to me—that many Christians go to church but have never read the Bible, let alone have prayer time. This may be the greatest oversight in our Christian life today. We are trying to live a Christian life, yet we don’t really know God or His purposes. We don’t know what the Bible says about Him, about life in general, and we surely don’t know God’s character, wisdom, love, mercy, forgiveness, or who He really is. We’ve heard a lot about him, but do we really know Him?

The Bible is God’s Word, penned by men, divinely inspired by God—it is a love letter. Within this book we find God’s truths. He reveals His character in his Word. The Bible is like an owner’s manual to us. He tells us and shows us how much He loves us in His Word. If we do not know God’s promises, how can we possibly trust Him?

Mind you, I am not a Bible scholar, but I am a Bible lover. I am forever learning truth after truth. God wants us to spend time with Him. He makes Himself available 24/7. He never sleeps. He promises He will never leave us or forsake us, and He answers knee-mail, a.k.a. prayer. He knows everything about us because He made us—we are created in His image. We are the apple of His eye and don’t even realize it.

When it comes to prayer without knowing God’s Word, nor His love or His promises, how can we pray prayers filled with hope and faith?

It is so sad to think Christians don’t realize that it is their privilege and responsibility to pray for their own life and their own situations. It is not the pastor’s responsibility or someone on the prayer team’s responsibility to pray—though they gladly pray for those in need. Through Jesus, we ourselves have direct access to God. We can pray about anything, anytime, anywhere, and we will be heard by the Creator of the universe.

This prayer book is written to help people learn to pray Scriptures. We chose the name of our group and this book, Standing in the Gap, based on Ezekiel 22:30. God looked for someone to stand in the gap: He sought an intercessor who would stand for a land so He would not have to destroy it, but He found no one. Our goal is to stand in the gap for others until Christ is formed in them and they can learn to pray for themselves. We began by writing out prayer cards—all our favorite promises in Scripture. We put them together in eleven categories—from healing to praying for our nation. From the prayer cards, we began to create prayers—prayers based on the promises of God.

This collection of prayers is the result of a group of women who wanted to equip others to learn to pray. Jesus told us that His house would be a house of prayer. We can agree with each other in prayer, and we can pray for others, but God wants us to be in relationship with Him, you and me, to speak to Him personally, to spend time with Him—that is the essence and purpose of prayer. It is never anyone else’s responsibility to pray for our situation. Every born-again believer has been given the privilege through the blood of Jesus to come to the throne of grace and receive mercy. Yes, God hears our emergent prayers and meets us where we are. God instructs us to ask, and we will receive. These are our emergency prayers—in the moments of crisis. Next, he tells us to seek. Seeking is taking a moment to search out His Word and find a promise to stand on. If we seek, we will find a promise. Finally, he says to knock until the door is opened. God loves a persistent believer.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He did in the past, He still does today. That is a promise for believers. Pray and wait expectantly. Pray and believe that what we prayed was heard and acted on by the great I AM. Once we have prayed, the next best thing is to wait to hear how God responds to us. He is still speaking. His sheep hear his voice. At times we treat our conversations with God like a one-way telephone conversation. We talk, we cry, we complain, we question—then we hang up. Give God a chance to respond. Have paper and pencil ready because when He speaks to us. We want to record His words. His Words change everything.

Some of the prayers we have written are personal while others are intercession for someone else or for a situation. Each prayer is based on Scripture, and at the end of each prayer are the scriptures that the prayer was written from. These scriptures are God’s promises. Though there are many mysteries about our God, His Word reveals His will for us in so many circumstances. Standing on a promise of God is like standing firmly on a rock—our feet planted—in the middle of a great storm and knowing that we cannot fall. We are firmly planted on a promise of God and the storm will pass.

Please remember that we are God’s idea. He chose to put us on this earth in this time and place. Nothing we go through is a surprise to Him. He never promised that we would not go through hard times. His promise, however, is that He would always be with us—even till the end of time. Jesus died to bring us salvation.

He is the only door through which we can get to God. He is forever interceding for us. We were never designed to be victims, helpless and hopeless. He died to set us free, to teach us to fight for our lives, fight for our families, to resist the devil and all his schemes. Our weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Speak His Word often. Speak it with hope, faith, and trust. As believers, we not only have the Word of God, but Jesus sent us his Holy Spirit. He is living in each believer. He was sent to remind us of all that Jesus accomplished in his time on earth. We receive power and authority through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus defeated Satan by shedding His blood for all our sins, all our sicknesses, and all our struggles. His work is complete, and because He did what He did, we have complete victory. Jesus has already fought our battles for us. He has given us victory. Our part? Claim the victory that Jesus attained for us.

I was reminded by a former pastor, I read the end of the book. We win! No matter what we face, no matter how difficult our situation is, Jesus has given us victory.

We pray that your relationship with Jesus grows with every prayer that you pray. Let these prayers open a door to your secret place with Him. Spending time with the God of the universe will change your life; you will never be the same. Let Him mold you and shape you until all He sees in you is Jesus.

How to Use This Prayer Book

Each prayer is filled with scriptural promises.

Pray them out loud.

Speak the person’s name over and over in the prayer.

Review the scriptures at the end of every prayer. Become familiar with His Word

At the end of every prayer is a lined paper. Record the people and situations you have been praying for, and when there is an answer or breakthrough, record it.

Pray often and don’t give up.

Based on Scriptures, you may begin to want to write your own versions of these prayers

Believe in God’s promises no matter what you see, feel, think, or hear.

Eliminate doubt, fear, discouragement, and despair from your mind.

The enemy will send strong delusions, and sometimes the situations look worse for a time, but don’t stop praying until you have victory.

Have faith in God and let hope in Jesus grow in your heart and let the Holy Spirit guide you.

You are not alone. Others are going through the same things you are going through.

God is our source of all provision. He gives us all that we will ever need.

God loves persistent pray-ers.

Praying for someone brings light into their life and darkness must flee. Keep praying.

When we are weak, He is strong. We can depend on Him.

Be strong and courageous and don’t be afraid

Jesus chose to suffer for us. He took our punishment so we could be set free.

When life gets too heavy, Jesus said to give Him the burden and He will carry it for us.

Thank God often. Thank Jesus often. Let Them know how much They are loved.

Trust God and wait on Him.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (Colossians 4:2)

¹⁶ Rejoice always,¹⁷ pray continually,¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18)

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