Prayer Is Never a Substitute for Obedience

     By A. W. Tozer
 

     Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
     the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
     which is in heaven.                              - Matthew 7:2.1

         Have you noticed how much praying for revival has
     been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted?

         I believe our problem is that we have been trying to
     substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not
     work!

         A church, for instance, follows its traditions without
     much thought about whether they are scriptural or not.
     Or it surrenders to pressure from public opinion and
     falls in with popular trends which carry it far from the
     New Testament pattern. Then the leaders notice a lack
     of spiritual power among the people and become
     concerned about it. What to do? How can they bring
     down refreshing showers to quicken their fainting souls?

         The answer is all ready for them. The books tell them
     how - pray!

         The passing evangelist confirms what the books have
     said - pray!

         So the pastor calls his people to pray. The tide of
     feeling runs high and it looks for a while as if the revival
     might be on the way. But it fails to arrive and the zeal for
     prayer begins to flag. Soon the church is back where it
     was before and a numb discouragement settles over
     everyone.

         What has gone wrong? Simply this: Neither the
     leaders nor the people have made any effort to obey the
     Word of God. They felt that their only weakness was
     failure to pray, when actually in a score of ways they
     were falling short in the vital matter of obedience!
        --------------------------------------------
     Yours in Christ,
     Paul N. F.