this short Devotion was shared at the end of year meeting of the St Christopher’s Intercessors on 17 November 2025.
Good morning, everyone. It’s a joy to share a short devotion with you today at our final intercessors gathering for the year. I want to begin by saying a heartfelt thank you – thank you for your faithfulness, your perseverance, and your quiet but powerful ministry of prayer. Week after week, you’ve come together to pray for people, families, our church – often unseen, but never unnoticed by God. You have been the spiritual backbone of our church.
As I prayed about what to share today, one phrase came to mind repeatedly: “Standing in the Gap.” It’s a powerful biblical picture that aptly describes what we do.
In Ezekiel 22:30, God says, “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not destroy it, but I found none.”
The picture is of a broken wall around a city – a wall meant to protect, but now with gaps and cracks. Through those gaps, danger enters. And God looks for someone willing to step into that broken place – to stand between the people and the coming destruction.
That’s what an intercessor does. You step into broken places – in families, in communities, even in the life of the church – and you pray, “Lord, have mercy.”
Psalm 106:23 recalls Moses, God’s chosen servant, who “stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying the people.”
When Israel rebelled, Moses prayed. He pleaded for mercy. In doing so, Moses became a bridge – connecting a sinful people with a merciful God. That is what intercessors do: you build bridges of prayer where things have been broken apart.
Let me share a true story that beautifully illustrates this ministry.
In the 1800s, missionary Hudson Taylor was serving in China. During one particularly dark season, he felt suddenly strengthened – as if new life had entered his weary soul. The opposition eased, his courage returned, and his ministry bore fresh fruit.
Months later, back in England, a woman approached him and said, “Mr Taylor, I felt a strong burden to pray for you every day that month – often in the night. It was as though the Lord would not let me rest until I had prayed.”
When they compared dates, they discovered her month of intense intercession was the very period when Taylor had been most sustained in China.
Taylor later wrote, “Then I knew that the Spirit of God had moved her to stand in the gap for me.”
The woman’s prayers, from thousands of miles away, held back despair and invited divine help. That is what you have been doing this year.
Friends, our ministry has not been in vain. Every prayer we’ve prayed, every burden we’ve carried, has been noticed in heaven. Revelation 5:8 describes the prayers of God’s people as “golden bowls full of incense” before the throne. Not one prayer is wasted.
Even when results are unseen, God is working through our intercession. As we come to the close of the year, let us thank the Lord for all He has done through this ministry. And as we look ahead to the coming year, may we renew our calling to stand in the gap for our families, for our community, and for the world God loves.
Let us pray.
Lord, thank you for calling us to stand in the gap – to pray when others cannot, to believe when others despair, to intercede for our church and for our world. Thank you for every answer you’ve given this year, and for the privilege of being part of your work through prayer. As we prepare for a new year, refresh our hearts and strengthen our hands. Teach us to pray with faith, with compassion, and with perseverance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
