This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
– Amos 7:1–3
Now, just soak in what these verses just showed us. These verses just showed us a picture of God’s coming judgment and Amos stepping in, standing in the gap, and interceding for God’s people. “Oh, Lord God, please forgive them. How can Jacob stand? He is so small.” And then Amos 7:3 says, “The Lord relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” said the Lord.” And if you read in Amos 7:4–6, the exact same thing happens again. We see a picture of God calling out judgment, Amos standing in the gap, saying, “Oh, Lord God, please cease.” And the Lord relented concerning this. “This shall not be,” said the Lord God.
Amos 7:1–3 is God encouraging his people toward prayer.
So these verses are a powerful testimony to the power of prayer, to the invitation God has given to you and me. And not just invitation, but the exhortation, the command, God has called us to stand in the gap for those in need around us. Those who even specifically in light of the context here in Amos 7, who are under his judgment, to stand in the gap for them, to intercede for them, to pray for them. God, please forgive. God, please cease. And to trust that God has chosen in his sovereign will.
And there’s so much mystery to how this works, but believe it according to the Bible that God has chosen to act in response to our prayers. God has chosen to do according to our word. We see this all throughout Scripture. And obviously we know that that doesn’t mean every single thing we ask God to do, God will immediately do. Thankfully, that’s not true. God is infinitely wiser than we are. God sees and knows so many things that we don’t see and know, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t say anything, because God has called us, invited us, beckoned us to pray with confidence that he will act according to our words.
Again, this is the whole basis for this podcast, when we pray according to his Word and we trust in his wisdom and his power and his love and his plan to use the prayers of his people to accomplish his purposes in the world. Oh, there’s so much there, but the bottom line is this should lead all of us to press in with confidence in prayer, to ask God boldly for things, and even specifically for things in others’ lives, and to trust that God hears us and will act according to his infinite wisdom and power and love. And so we pray.
Amos 7:1–3 is God’s reminder that he will act in response to our prayers.
Oh God, even right now, we press that and pray in light of this picture in Amos 7. We want to stand in the gap and intercede specifically for people around us who are in need. And our minds might go in many different directions here, just to different faces, different people we know. God, we pray for your help for them. We pray for your mercy over them in the midst of the needs they’re facing. God, we pray specifically for people who are under your judgment, in sin, and don’t know you as their Savior. God, we pray, please forgive them. Please save them. Please redeem them.
God, please change their hearts, their lives. Please bring them into relationship with you, into life in you. God, we pray for that. We intercede for them right now. Please save, oh God. Please restore. Lord, please heal. Please help the people that are coming to our minds. God, we stand in the gap with confidence before you, that you love them, that you desire their good, that you desire life for them, and you are the fountain of all mercy and goodness and grace and love that can make that possible for them. So God, we ask that you would do what only you can do in their lives.
Oh God, teach us to pray with confidence that you’re listening to us right now and you act in response to our prayers in accord with your wisdom and power and love.
Prayer for the Chadar People
And God, we stand in the gap right now. We pray for the nations. We pray for the Chadar people of India, for 160,000 Hindu men, women and children among the Chadar of India. God, we stand in the gap right now. We know you love them. Jesus, we know you have died on the cross to purchase people for God from the Chadar of India. So God, please bring about their salvation.
Today, we pray that you would cause the gospel to spread to them, raise up laborers to go into that harvest field and to spread the good news of your love and your grace and your mercy that they might be saved. God, please use our prayers for the Chadar to accomplish your purposes among the Chadar, for your glory and for their good. Oh God, we are overwhelmed when we think about the wonder and the privilege, the responsibility that you’ve given us in prayer. So help us to pray faithfully, humbly, confidently, with humble confidence that you will use our prayers to accomplish your purposes. May it be so, we pray. In Jesus’ name, according to your Word in Amos 7:1–3. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
