No way can I stop now

Amos 7 is a chapter packed with doom and gloom.

Amos sees a vision of a devastating swarm of locusts and begs for mercy.

I cried out, ‘Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!’

So the Lord relented.  Amos 7:2-3

Prayer can change things.

Amos sees a vision of a devouring fire and begs for mercy.

Then I cried out, ‘Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!’

So the Lord relented.  Amos 7:5-6

When our hearts are moved within us, we pray. We plead before God. And God listens.

But Israel has abused its special relationship with the one true God and for that, there has to be a consequence. God uses the example of a plumb line. It’s basically a weight that hangs down from a piece of string that determines how straight a wall is. A wall has to be built on a firm foundation to be perfectly straight. And if the wall is not straight, there’s no point building the rest of the house. The wall has to be torn down and rebuilt. And so it is with the people of God. The community of this chosen people has to be built on God’s foundations to be built perfectly straight, with integrity and honesty and justice. If the wall is not straight, then it has to be pulled down and rebuilt. There is no other choice.

Then the Lord said, ‘Look, I am setting a plumb-line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.  Amos 7:8

No one wants to hear what Amos has to say. His words are uncomfortable. He’s stirring the waters. He’s disturbing the peace. And he’s not even from Israel but from Judah. What right does he have to be speaking in Judah at all? He’s upsetting people with his dire predictions. He’s dragging the mood down. Amaziah the priest sees it as his duty to let the King know what Amos is up to. Amos is undermining the King himself and has to be stopped.

Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.  Amos 7:10

Go back to where you came from. You’re not welcome here. Go and earn your money doing what you do among your own people. Stay away from the places that you don’t belong. You have no right to be speaking out here.

Amos’ response is priceless –

I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”  Amos 7:14-15

So here I am. This is what God has called me to and equipped me for. This is God’s way. And so I cannot stop. I cannot be silenced.

Amos is so sure that God’s hand is on his life. God has filled him with purpose and passion and power. He is a nobody. He has not forgotten where he has come from. But God is transforming this ordinary man into something extraordinary. A spokesperson for His message. It’s not an easy path, that’s for sure. It isn’t going to make Amos popular. It could end up being dangerous. But Amos feels he has no choice. He’s seen the path God has carved out for him and he has chosen to walk in it.

I have an awakening sense of this in my own life. I have been silenced. I used to speak out so much more than I do now. But I got hurt. People who didn’t like the message I was conveying found a way to silence me. I kept doing my own thing in my own small way, living out God’s love as I believed He wanted me to, but with my head well and truly down below the parapet. I became so scared of being seen as a trouble-maker that I settled for less than I should have done. I felt powerless to speak. I felt I had no voice.

But in the last few months, there has been a change. Sometimes, it gets to a point where you can be silent no longer. Where the words will burst out of you whether you like it or not. The situation in our country and across the whole world is stirring many of us to wake up and find our voice. Not just me. We can no longer stay silent. And so a few months back, my husband and I stood before our church and spoke out about our difficult family situation. We made ourselves vulnerable in front of some of the very people who has caused us so much hurt before. And then as the New Year approached, I felt God saying very strongly to me that I needed to find my voice again. I’m still working out what that means exactly. I’m feeling encouraged and challenged by a friend who has very clearly found her voice and is already shouting loud and strong. This is the year where I will have to stand up for what I believe in, I know that. And that scares the life out of me.

But if I believe any of what I’ve been writing as I’ve been on this journey through the Bible, then I know God is big enough and strong enough for the both of us.

God has something to say through me, just as He does through each one of us. As we continue to follow Him and and start to work out what that is, He will fill us with purpose and passion and power.

No way can I stop now!