Prayer and Action

Prayer is the place where humility is adopted, pride is abandoned, needs are admitted, and dependence acknowledged upon Christ. We must preface all endeavors with dependent prayer since too often we ignore prayer and seek to accomplish in the strength of our own wills those things God has placed on our hearts to do. But, on the other hand, prayer without action is also foolish. In most circumstances, it is not wise to prayer and then do nothing. Consider the farmer: He does not merely pray and hope that crops will come forth. Rather, he plows up the fallow ground, sows his seed and labors until harvest. But he also knows that without the blessing of rain and climate, his harvest will never come, no matter how hard he works. So both the farmers' work and God's blessing is necessary for results. Likewise when we pray, we should not merely sit back and hope something will happen. When we see God's will not being done on earth we must both pray and work to see change take place. This prayer driven work is the most wise and likely to bring success. Lke the planting of crops, the results are still ultimately dependent on God blessing the endeavor. We must 1) not work independently of God and 2) should not put our hands to rest only trusting in a miracle but must work as if the outcome depended on ourselves, while we rest in faith upon the glorious fact that everything depends on the soveriegn Lord. This is the biblical model and would fall under the doctrine of concurrence.