Praying and Doing

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1859

Praying and Doing.

As a general rule, God would not have his people pray without some corresponding activity, any more than he would have them act without prayer. He may for a time confine them to one service of petitioning; but it is only till they feel their dependence and become ready in all things to do his will. He says "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them;" but he will have all the inquiries made in a practical obedient spirit. He says "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. But in all this he requires that they unresistingly, cheerfully, follow his guidance.

When Moses on the shore of the Red Sea, environed with difficulties and threatened with dangers, made his appeal to God for deliverance the answer came in an unexpected form. "Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak to the people that they go forward." When prayer is offered, not unfrequently the first answer consists in a plain indication of something to be done, and the doing of that thing becomes a condition of further light. Success at the throne of grace may be hindered by a single neglected duty. Jacob understood this when threatened with attack by an armed band, and made the best disposition he could for defense before he spent that night of persistent wrestling. He had "power with God," for one reason at least. He was a consistent petitioner; he did not ask God to do what he could do for himself.

Jesus would not raise Lazarus from the grave till the bystanders had taken away the stone. He who will not perform duty when fairly made known, may as well cease praying, for he will pray in vain. Ordinarily, God points out one duty at a time and lays it upon the conscience as primary and paramount, virtually saying, "Do that and then look to me for further illumination." Christ said "if any man will do his will, he shall know."—Dr. Stow's First Things.