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.