Stand In The Gap
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I hope you’re ready to pray.
Welcome to this special, pre-election day edition of Joni and Friends. Tomorrow, we elect our nation’s leaders, and I hope you’re ready to pray, because we are asking God to mercifully and powerfully mobilize his people, including you and me, to advance across this nation all things that are true and good – no matter who is elected to office. The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation, and that starts with prayer. You know in Hebrews chapter 7, we see a picture of Jesus interceding about that very thing. It says he lives to intercede; that’s what he’s doing this minute, right now. So, would you picture yourself in that throne room with him, there in the third heaven? Would you imagine yourself dropping to your knees, as it were, next to Jesus? Picture it; join him in intercession. Stand in the gap between God and the people of this nation. Oh, friend, that we might get serious about 2 Chronicles 7:14 and ask the Holy Spirit to sweep clean our hearts. Because if we cherish any sin; if we coddle sinful habits, the Lord’s not gonna hear us. And I want God to hear us, don’t you? Sure you do! But he won’t if we hide stubborn, willful sins in our hearts. Psalm 66:18 says that if we don’t let go of sin, our prayers just won’t be heard. So, to begin with, friends, let’s get clean. Let’s plead not only for our own renewal, let’s implore God for the many Americans who desperately need the light of Christ’s salvation.
And as we come up on this election, I am praying especially about the darkness, the divisiveness in our country. Because what is evil has become good; and that evil is now protected. And what is good is misconstrued as evil or racist or politically incorrect. I could recount many examples, but the one I’m thinking of right now is happening in the assembly of my own state. Under existing law, the Sex Offender Registration Act requires a person convicted of certain sex crimes to register as a sex offender with law enforcement officials while residing or working, or attending school in California. But the new California bill 145 sought to amend that law in an effort “to end blatant discrimination against LGBT young people regarding California’s sex offender registry.” Now, I’m not going to go into the appalling details of that law – if you’re interested, just Google SB-145. But suffice to say, it is just one example of the dark and insidious thinking that is so pervasive on college campuses, in our courts, and in our state assemblies.
It is like the times of Isaiah where he groaned, “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness over the peoples, but [and here’s where you as an intercessor come in] but, the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Oh, that our nation might come to the light of Christ, right? And that they might see his brightness in the lives of you and me, his people; that it might “dawn” how desperately they need – we all need – to follow Jesus. And I am here today, the day before we elect our nation’s leaders, to lead you in prayer for those who are groaning the most under the darkness, this heaviness that covers the land. So, right after this, please go immediately to my Facebook page to a prayer video that I just did; let’s pray together right now, today, before our election. Again, that’s my Facebook page, or you can go directly to joniradio.org and pray with me there. May God have mercy; may he show his grace to America in this dark, but very hopeful hour.
