Wasted Prayer

Are there times when our prayers are wasted?

What in the world are wasted prayers?

No, it isn't what a drunken college kid does when he has had one too many or what Garth sang about. (That would be Unanswered Prayers for any of you who didn't join the revolution.) 

Wasted prayer is prayer without obedience. It is prayer without action. It is when you put off doing what you know or feel that you are supposed to do. A position many of us find ourselves in all too often.

For example, you are praying that God will restore your marriage. Great prayer, but what are you doing to help restore your marriage?

Or you are praying that God would use you to change your community. However, when the children's pastor ask you to volunteer at church, she hears a "I'll pray about it." You think the task too small or the commitment too burdensome. 

Or maybe you are like me and you aren't totally sure what you should be doing, so you do nothing but pray about it.

Greg Darley recently released a book--Wasted Prayer. 

I know Darley, so I read it out of my respect for him. (After all, he was the first person I ever saw wear TOMS and thought he deserved that much.) God did something in me with Darley's message. I received a nudge to stop praying and start doing. I read the book over two weeks ago and still think about it every day. Personally, there are two different things I have been praying about for some time. Since reading the book, I have stopped praying and gotten to work. 

If you are frustrated with how your life is going or wrestling with your calling, you should read this book. Don't pray about it, just do it. (See what I did there?) It is less than 200 pages, so it's a quick read. You can buy the book here.