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!

        Yours in Christ,
        Paul N. F.