Prayer and Work by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 26, 1882

Prayer and Work.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

It is very common for Christians to pray that the Lord will extend his cause, and hasten the time when all shall have the truth. This is all right so far as it goes; but if they do nothing more it will amount to but little. It is true that God has promised to hear and answer prayer, but he has his own way of working. Very often he requires individuals to help answer their own prayers. In order to have a reasonable hope that our prayers will be answered, we must ask in a proper manner, and observe the proper conditions.

Now what agency does God employ to extend his cause? He works through men, by means of the spoken or written word. He has never sent angels to preach the word, neither is the work advanced by some intangible, irresistible impulse emanating from God, without the intervention of man. There never has been an advance move made in the cause of God unless one has taken hold of the work in earnest. Sermons have been preached, tracts have been written and extensively circulated, and individual work has been done for sinners, whenever anything has been accomplished.

But for all this, money is necessary, and this must be supplied. And so, very often it is the case that those who pray for the extension of the work would pray more directly to the point if they would pray for a willing, generous spirit, that they might be able to give cheerfully of the means which God has placed in their hands. If when they pray thus, they would give something to help carry on the work they might have a hand in answering their own prayers. And this is what God designs.

It is reasonable to suppose that God is more solicitous for the spread of his cause than any man can be. He always leads out and opens the way; we tardily follow. "Faith without works is dead." The apostle James shows how foolish it is to say to the naked and hungry, "Be ye warmed and filled," when "those things which are needful to the body" are not given. It profits nothing. So it is with the cause of God. Many prayers profit nothing, because they are not backed by earnest work.

God could carry on his work independent of men, but fortunately for us he has not chosen to do so. The enjoyment of our promised reward would be lessened if not wholly lost, if we did not have a share in the work. Only to the workers will it be said, "Well done!" To such the words will be added, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." What is the joy of the Lord? Is it simply to sit passively and feast the eyes and ears on the glorious sights and sounds of Heaven? Far from it. We learn from Isa. 53:10, what it is: "He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many."

If, then, the joy of the Lord will be to see those saved for whom he labored, and endured anguish and death, what must we do to enter into that joy? We must be co-workers with him. We must share in the toil and suffering and hardship here, that we may see those whom we have helped to save. This is plain enough, but there is one more thought: There will not be a specially favored class who are to enter into the joy of the Lord; all will alike share this to their fullest capacity. Then there will be none there who have not denied themselves here in order that others might be saved. This is something for us each to meditate upon. Have we really practiced self-denial for the sake of the cause? If not, we would do well to begin, or we shall lose our reward, for time is short.

What is needed is not less prayers but more work. The work will be done; if not by us, by somebody else. "Look on the fields; for they are white already to the harvest. And he that reapeth received wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal."

"Who will come And share in the glory of the harvest home?" E. J. W.