Does the SBC need more prayer?

Let me pose a question to you: Have you ever heard the Lord say, “Quit praying—get up off your knees”?

The Lord spoke these very words to Moses: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me?’ ” (Exodus 14:15). The literal Hebrew meaning of the verse is, “Why are you shrieking at Me? Why all the loud pleading in My ears?”

Why would God say this to Moses? Here was a godly, praying man, in the crisis of his life. The Israelites were being chased by Pharaoh, with no escape. Most Christians would probably react as Moses did. He got alone with the Lord and poured out his heart in prayer.

Yet when God heard Moses shrieking, He told him, “Enough!” Scripture is not explicit about what follows, but at that point God might have said, “You have no right to agonize before Me, Moses. Your cries are an affront to My faithfulness. I have already given you My solemn promise of deliverance, and I have instructed you specifically on what to do. Your tears are not the cry of a broken heart now—they are tears of self-pity. It is time to stop crying.”

As we face our own crises, we may convince ourselves, “Prayer is the most important thing I can do right now”—but a time comes when God calls us to act, to obey His Word in faith. At such a time, He will not allow us to retreat to a wilderness to pray. That would be disobedience—and any prayers would be offered in unbelief.

David Wilkerson, God Is Faithful: A Daily Invitation into the Father Heart of God (Minneapolis, MN: Chosen, 2012), 185.