July 12 (Daily reading: Amos 6-9) Amos 3:7 tells us that God speaks to His people: “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.” This is how we can know God and do His will. Henry Blackaby wrote: “If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience” (“Experiencing God,” p. 36).
The priest Amaziah is an example of the way some want to hear God. He said to Amos: “Go…to the land of Judah and…do your prophesying! But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence” (7:10, 12-13). What was the problem? Amos was speaking God’s truth about His judgment on the land. The priest and the king did not want to hear the truth. Amos replied to Amaziah, “The LORD took me from following the flock and the LORD said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’ Now hear the word of the LORD” (7:15-16).
It is true that God speaks to us. It is also true that what He says will not be influenced by what we want to hear! America resembles ancient Israel in this way. People do not want to hear truth; they want to hear what pleases them and what is convenient for them. As God’s spokespersons, we must say, as Amos did, “Now hear the word of the Lord!”
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD” (8:11). Between the Old and New Testaments, God was silent. Then God spoke: “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11). Many are starving today for the salvation that only Jesus can give!
– Al Gary
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