Substituting Praying For Obeying: Will Not Work

   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!

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    Yours in Christ,
   Paul N. F.