Stop Praying.  Start Doing.

 

Stop praying? It sounds counter intuitive, doesn't it? We are told so many times in Scripture to pray, that to say, Stop Praying, sounds wrong.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”

Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always....”

Colossians 4:2 “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving”

We see in the Bible, that God gives us clear instruction regarding prayer and emphasises the importance of it.

Why then, or when, should we STOP praying?

Imagine telling your children to go clean their messy rooms. Two hours later you walk in and see them sitting on the floor, praying for God to reveal His will about whether they should begin. Lofty prayers, but no submission. No obedience. There was no need to pray about a clear instruction they had already been given.

Prayer is clearly NOT what they needed to be doing in this instance. Obedience was.

How often is this the case with our prayers?

This example sounds silly I know, but strangely enough, that's how we often handle prayer. We hide behind it. We hope it will cover for our disobedience in other areas that are harder to do than just praying. God keeps telling us the things we need to do, and we just keep 'praying about it' with no steps of action. There comes a time when God has revealed His will, and we need to stop praying, get up and DO His will.

In John 14:15, God says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”.

If our prayers are coming from a rebellious heart, and we are not following Him with faith, submission and obedience while claiming to love Him, we are hypocrites.

We are given clear instruction in the Word of God about how we are to live our lives, how we are to treat others, what we should follow after, what we should run the other way from, and yet, we often think we are being super spiritual when we say we’re going to pray about it.

Don’t kid yourself. If you know in your heart that God is calling you to something, and you decide to just wait a bit longer for God to answer your prayer, then in your waiting, all you’re doing is disobeying!

Now, don’t get me wrong, prayer is really important, and we need to take time to pray about the what, when and how, but when we already know God’s will and we keep praying instead of jumping into action, we are guilty of disobedience.

When Joshua was trying to understand Israel's defeat at Ai, God told him to get up! Stop praying.

Joshua 7:10-11 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

God told Joshua to stop praying and start doing. He was on his face crying out to God but the better course of action was to go and find the source of the problem and remove it from the camp. And Joshua did just that.

Joshua 7:16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

Another instance in the Bible of God commanding prayer to stop was when God told several of the prophets to stop praying for Israel.

Jeremiah 7:16-17 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The people were in disobedience to God and pursuing idolatry, so God told the prophets to stop praying. As long as the Israelites continued to rebel, it was pointless to pray.

Jeremiah 7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

Obedience matters. What you're praying for could be coming from a willing heart, right with God, but often what God wants from you is action. Not more prayer.

Too many times I'm guilty of putting off something I know I should be doing, and just praying about it. I ask, “Is it your will God?” when I know full well that it is. I'm just delaying because it's too hard or too humbling or easier just to pray about it.

All too often we pray but don't obey. But obedience and prayer go hand in hand.

Stop praying about it if you're not willing to obey.

If you are walking in disobedience to God by not stepping out when you know he has called you to, then stop praying about it. No amount of prayer is going to help give you guidance. The only prayer you should be praying is a prayer of repentance for being so faithless.

Is there something in your life right now that you know you should be doing? Is there someone you know God has told you to speak to, or maybe a ministry God has put on your heart that you keep putting off?

Are you wasting time praying about

 it when you should be just doing it?

James 4:17

 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

 

Stop praying. Start doing.