Prayer Requires Something of You

As I was transporting my children to school this morning, a familiar scenario played out. I instructed them to put on their seat belts… more than ONCE! The three younger ones acted as if I was asking them to do something painful. After they reluctantly put on their seatbelts, I reminded them of what I had reminded them of so many times before. I told them that God gave people the wisdom to create seatbelts to help keep us safe. I am in the habit of praying and asking the Lord to keep us safe when we are traveling. I told the children that while praying is ALWAYS in order, we should not ignore the safety provisions that are available to help answer that prayer.

How many times have we been like my children; times where we prayed, but ignored the answer God provided? It is so easy to use prayer as a copout. We pray but sometimes we want God to do it all and not require anything of us. However, prayer requires not only something of God but in prayer, God may require us to act! It is not wisdom to pray but then ignore and not act on wh at God has given us to help answer that prayer. For example, we may pray and ask the Lord to keep us from fornication but we push to keep a relationship alive that God cut off. We may pray and ask God for financial resources. However, when He opens the door for us to get a job we decline because we think the job is beneath us. A student may pray and ask God to help her pass her exams but uses the time God provided to do everything else BUT study. Pray at all times? Yes! However, remember that prayer does not exempt you from action.