A Prayer for Those Who Wait | David Platt

David and Heather Platt know what it means to wait for an adoption. They had planned to bring their son home in early 2020, but the COVID-19 virus meant they couldn’t travel. Burdened for his son and for all who are waiting, David shared the following… 

Our child’s name is J.D.

It stands for Jeremiah Daniel. We wait and pray for him every day, all day long. We were just pleading even last night, “God, please open up a door for us to go to him.”

We’ve been matched with J.D. for adoption, and we were just a few days away from leaving the country to go and bring him into our home when—in early February 2020—we were told we couldn’t go because of the spread of the virus around the world.

So I want to pray for J.D. and for a lot of other waiting children and their families who are not able to come together right now.

David Platt’s prayer for those who wait—

So God, we praise You.

You are the Father to the fatherless. You love orphans—children without a home—far more than we ever could. And You call Yourself Father—You make a way for children to be brought into homes.

God, we pray for orphans around the world right now who don’t have a mom and dad. God, we pray that You would provide a home for them, and God, we pray that You would open the door for waiting children who are ready to be adopted and families who are ready to go and adopt them, whether that’s domestic or international.

We pray You would open the door for these children to be brought into homes.

We pray that you would protect these children, and as we trust in your timing, we pray that you would open the door for us to go get our children.

God, I pray for every waiting family.

We pray that You would grant patience, that You would grant protection, that you would open the door in Your sovereign power, according to Your sovereign wisdom, that families and children without families might be united as soon as possible.

We praise You. Psalm 113:9 says, “You give the barren woman a home. You make her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord.” We praise You, God, as the Father to the fatherless, and we plead right now together on behalf of waiting children and families during this pandemic.


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God, I pray for every waiting child.

I’m compelled even now to pray also for children who don’t have a family coming for them right now. God, we pray that you would raise up more families who will care for children who don’t have a mom and dad.

God, please provide homes for children who need a home. I pray that even right now, You might move in people’s hearts who are reading this. God, I just ask that Your Spirit would lead some to adopt, some to sign up to do foster care.

God, we pray that You would lead Your Church even now to care for children without a home.

We pray this for Your glory as Father to the fatherless.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.


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David and Heather still wait to bring J.D. home.

David Platt serves as pastor at McLean Bible Church in Washington, D.C. He is the founder and chairman of Radical. He is the author of several books, including Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, and Something Needs to Change.