Please, Stop Praying!

Let me start this post with a disclaimer: I love God and I love prayer. Now that we’ve got this out of the way, let’s get started.

I don’t know if conservative Christians will concur with this post. However, I know that this post doesn’t retract from the truths of the Bible but supports it.

Recently, a friend of mine was getting married and she shared in our group chat that is a bit overwhelmed six days before her wedding day, as likely to happen. Another friend offered to pray for her, “if there is anything you want us to pray for specifically, let us know. We gotchu girl!” I’ll be the first to say prayer works. But, at that moment, I found myself responding adamantly, “I ain’t praying anymore… it is action time” For months, we’ve been praying for that friend. I felt it was fitting to stop praying and start to act. Prayer is great, but what is prayer without action?

For in everything in life there is a time, a time to pray and a time not to pray. When the time not to pray has come, it is time to act. The famous quote embedded in James 2:26 Faith without works is dead is simply saying, prayer without action is dead. Asking God for something and not prepare for it is a little absurd in my opinion. What is the purpose of asking God to open doors if you won’t go though them?

Story time… True story!

A couple of years ago, we asked a young lady to lead prayer the following Wednesday for our weekly service in our church. “Let me pray about it” she said. That’s right, she wanted to pray to find out if God wants her to lead prayer. I know not everything but would God ever say “no” to anyone who desires to pray? Nope, he wouldn’t and neither am I. I’m inspiring you to marry your faith with action. Remember the woman with the issue of blood? Her story is archived in the gospels. She had to marry her faith with an action. She believed that if she touched Jesus she would be healed, but she had to find Him in the crowd and touch him. Remember Esther? She didn’t just fasted. She made banquets, invited her husband the king, sought after his favor and changed the narratives of the Jewish people. Remember what happened at the wedding, they ran out of wine. Mary talked to Jesus and told the servants to “do whatever He asks you.” Then they had to get jars and filled with the water. Join in with them; marry your faith with action.

Our victory, deliverance, healing and the like are all sourced by God, yes! But, we are not excluded from our duties in cooperating with Him. For many eras, we’ve been telling God, “The people are hungry” and asking Him to “feed them.” He is saying to us “you feed them.” You do it. You open the door. God will give you the key but you have to open the door. God will send the ravens to feed you but you have to take it and eat. We are a part of our emancipation. God won’t do it without you. God parted the Red Sea but the Israelites had to walk through. To pray without ceasing is to act without ceasing as well. If we are willing to pray, we must be willing to be the instrument that God will utilize to answer that prayer. If we listened to God closely enough we will see when we pray, there is always something He is asking us to do. When you pray, “do whatever He asks you.

Cioa!
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