Abraham approached him and said: “Will you
sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?
Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the
fifty righteous people in it?” Genesis 18:23-24
‘Standing in the gap’ probably is one of the most important activities that God requires of every Christian. We normally refer to it as ‘interceding’.
Standing in the gap is one of the most profitable undertakings for a Christian and by that, I mean one of the most fulfilling undertakings of our lives.
The opening Bible verses clearly show that Abraham was so concerned about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that he decided to stand between God and Sodom and Gomorrah, in a bid to avert the destruction.
Unfortunately, Abraham thought there was a significant number of righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, which sadly wasn’t the case.
In the opening Bible verses, Abraham asked God if He would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were fifty righteous people in it; in response, God told Abraham that He would not destroy the cities if there were fifty righteous people in them.
In the Bible verses that followed, we see Abraham progressively narrowing down the number of the righteous to as low as ten, hoping to increase the chances of saving Sodom and Gomorrah from the planned destruction.
Again, God promised Abraham that if there were just ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, He would spare the cities.
But the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah were destroyed, weren’t they? This goes to show the extent of the evil
that had infested these places.
Life is probably not about anything else; it seems life is almost all about relationships. So, the Christian needs to value relationships, and one can do so only through love; that’s what I believe.
Love should be how we relate to each other. Our hearts should burn with concern for others. Your heart should always beat in rhythm with the other.
Consider Jesus. He went through pain, suffering, and death so that we might have life and have it to the full. Jesus was not the objective of His own mission; you can clearly see that Jesus’ mission was all about other people, you and me, that we may stand in the grace in which we now stand.
It was because of Jesus that we now relate to God in a Father-child kind of relationship, that we now can boldly come before Him and submit our requests to Him.
I believe we all graduate. I also believe it is only through the Holy Spirit that we come to a point of being so concerned about humankind to the same extent, or more or less the same extent, that Jesus did. But we only get there by praying without fainting, staying in the Word of God, and embracing love.
Some Christians prefer to pray only for themselves and their immediate families. They regard intercession as a sort of wasting time and effort. For such people, everything should be about themselves and those closest to them.
I believe that there also are many Christians in the world who rejoice at the well-being of the next person, Christians who do anything to make the needy comfortable, materially, but more so, spiritually. Such Christians prioritize other people in everything they do. This is what you too are encouraged to consider doing, and God will help you if you are willing.
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