Amos 7 and the Local Weatherman

I recently listened to a sermon from a friend of mine named Tommy.  He preached on the first five verses of Amos chapter 7.  In the beginning of the sermon he told a story about a conversation with a friend of his who happens to be a farmer.  The farmer was complaining to Tommy about how wet the ground was in his fields, and how it has been difficult to get his machinery to the necessary spots to tend his crops.  He also expressed his fears that his seed might be drowned out by the amount of water in the fields.

                The final crux of the farmer’s complaints came with regard to the local weatherman.  He said, “every time we get rain, the weatherman keeps saying, ‘thank goodness for the rain, we sure do need it!’”  This upset the farmer, because the claim is not true; the farmers do not need any more rain.  In fact, the farmer called in to the television station to tell the weatherman to stop saying that they need rain.  My friend Tommy asked why this was such a big deal, and the farmer responded, “because if the weatherman keeps saying that we need rain, people will keep praying for rain, and then God will keep sending rain.”

                I found this to be a very indicting claim.  The farmer believes in the power of prayer enough to call in angrily to his local weatherman and complain to him.  It is easy to believe that things such as the weather will simply take their course, but this farmer believes that prayer actually makes a difference.  Amos believed this too, and when God shows him two visions, one of locusts, and another of great fire that burns up Israel’s water supply, Amos prays and pleads with God, “Sovereign Lord, please stop! How can Jacob survive? He is too small!”

                Both times that Amos prays this simple prayer, God relents and changes his mind.  Our motivation for praying should certainly not always be to affect the future, but I think one concept stands out: we should at least be praying.