“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.'”
– Isaiah 6:1–8
Oh God, we join with all the angels of heaven, who right now are singing these words around your throne: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” The whole earth is full of your glory. God, there is no one like you. You are holy, holy, holy. Help us to pray and to live in light of your holiness, in light of your glory and your power and your love and the majesty of who you are.
Isaiah 6:1–8 is meant to inspire godly fear in us.
God, help us to pray with reverent fear. Help us to live with reverent fear. Help us to be holy as you are holy today. God, help us to hate sin, to run from it in every way, knowing that we are people of unclean lips, that we are prone to sin in our lives. Jesus, we praise you for making atonement from sin possible for us. We praise you for dying on the cross so that our guilt would be taken away and our sin covered by your blood. All glory be to your name, for your grace and your mercy in our lives.
God, help us to hate sin, to be quick to confess it, to be cleansed from it, and to live in pursuit of righteousness and holiness and obedience to you and your word. God, we praise you for the gospel, for the good news of your grace in our lives, your atonement in our lives, for the fact that we are counted as righteous before you, though we don’t deserve that.
Isaiah 6:1–8 motivates us to live on mission.
And so we say, oh God, here we are. Send us today, use us today to spread your word, the good news of your grace and your holiness and your love, and your power to forgive and to cleanse and to atone for sin.
God, we pray that you would help us. Use us. Send us today in the power of your Holy Spirit to share the gospel with people around us: where we work, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and God, send us to the nations till all the peoples know the good news of your grace in Jesus, the good news of your holiness and your love for the world, that you’ve sent your son to die on a cross so that we, anyone, anywhere who believes in Jesus will not perish, but have everlasting life. Here we are, send us, use us today. Use our prayers right now.
Prayer for the Unreached
God, we pray for people who don’t know the gospel around us. Draw them to yourself. God, we pray for people around the world, for unreached people groups, thousands of them who don’t have the gospel. God, we pray, send us, use our resources, use our prayers, use our lives to spread the gospel. Help us to live for this every day, oh God… Until the day when we gather around your throne with every nation and tribe and tongue… And we see your face, we behold your glory face to face. Oh God, help us to live, to worship you, to spread your glory… To follow you and make you known until that day. Help us to live that way today in light of your word in Isaiah 6:1-8. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
