I’ve Prayed a Thousand Times and Got Nowhere

As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 1 Samuel 7:10

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was hanged in 1945 for his anti-Nazi activities, once said – One act of obedience is worth 100 sermons. I learned the truth of this through my own addiction and would even go so far as to amend the statement to this – One act of obedience is worth 1,000 prayers.

Here’s what I mean. In my addiction, I grew to hate who I was and what I was doing. In that misery, I believed that God could transform me. So, I prayed – God, take my addiction from me. Deliver me. Now I know those who’ve had that prayer answered immediately and miraculously, but I did not have that experience. Instead, God told me to take action. Confess. Do whatever it takes to cut drugs out of your life. Go to treatment. Follow me. To these commands, I responded, Absolutely not. I’m not doing any of those things. That’s too uncomfortable. I just want you to remove my destructive appetite with no cost to me.

Over 15 years of addiction, I must have prayed that same prayer a thousand times, each time, getting nowhere. Eventually of course, my life fell apart, and I had no choice but to go to treatment. There, I finally changed my approach. God, I’m sick of this life. Tell me what to do. I will do whatever you ask. That was the beginning of my recovery. God wanted to transform me all along, but he also wanted to teach me obedience. I got my miraculous transformation – I no longer desire to use opioids – but I didn’t get to experience that miracle until I obeyed.

This is the lesson from today’s passage. In it, God’s people worshipped foreign idols and so, God allowed them to be subjugated by the Philistines. In their distress, they cried out to God, who demanded they first get rid of their idols and follow him. God wasn’t going to remove the Philistines only to allow his people to keep their idols. No, if they wanted to see God’s power in their lives, they had to first confess and do whatever it took to get rid of those idols. Then, and only then, did they see God move.

I know I’m not alone. I know that as Christians, we often go to God, asking for transformation, hoping that it costs us nothing. Again, there are those who experience the miracle but miracles, by definition, are rare events. For most of us, God asks us to obey, to do something. When he asks, we must follow. If we truly desire transformation, we cannot just sit back, pray, and do nothing. God doesn’t leave us alone to change ourselves, but he does ask that we obey him.