“Prayer Is Never a Substitute for Obedience 祈禱絶不能代替順服聽從“（Matthew 馬太福音 7:21-23）
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”
不是每一個對我說：‘主啊，主啊！’的人，都能進入天國，唯有遵行我天父旨意的人，才能進去。到那日，必有許多人對我說：‘主啊，主啊！難道我們沒有奉你的名講道，奉你的名趕鬼，奉你的名行過許多神蹟嗎？’但我必向他們聲明：‘我從來不認識你們；你們這些作惡的人，離開我去吧！’
There has been much praying for revival but little revival has resulted. Irrespective of whatever scriptural foundation or human motive behind praying for church revival, the solution to a lack of spiritual power among the people is often to pray but it simply will not work! The revival fails to arrive and the zeal for prayer begins to flag. Soon the church is back where it was before and a numb discouragement settles over everyone. Our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying. Simply this: Neither the leaders nor the people have made any effort to obey the Word of God. They felt that their only weakness was failure to pray, when actually in a score of ways they were falling short in the vital matter of obedience!
為復興的禱告有很多，卻少有復興成果可見。在祈禱教會復興背後，不論任何聖經基礎或人為的動機，對會友們缺乏屬靈的力量，解決方法往往是祈禱，但它只不過没有奏效！復興始終杳無踪影，禱告的熱心也開始動搖。這間教會沒多久便故態復萌，沮喪的情緒使每一個人都麻木了。我們的問題是自己正企圖以祈禱來代替順服聽從，很簡單：教會領袖和會眾們一點也沒努力去順服聽從神的話。他們只感到自己唯一的軟弱就是禱告不足，但事實上，他們在順服聽從這重要的一環裡，有更多的缺欠。
Prayer: Father God, thank you for reminding us that we might speak or say things to Lord Jesus or about Him, but do not really mean it, i.e. only bare words and passing thoughts. Help us to turn away from believing that there was value in the bare words and fulfilling some kind of religious duty with no heart, no soul, not spirit. Prompt and empower us to connect in the name of Jesus Christ our spiritual life with our daily life witnessing our love and fellowship with Him. Amen.
禱告：父神啊，感謝你提醒我們，自己或許與主耶穌交談，或說關於祂的話，實際上卻不以為意，意即只是空泛的言語和轉瞬即逝的思想。求你幫助我們從空泛的言語，並不帶著心意靈魂去履行著某種宗教職責，是有價值的信念轉離。求你促使我們有力量，奉耶穌基督之名，把我們的屬靈生命與自己的日常生活連結起來，見證我們與基督的愛和團契相交。阿們。
