When It Is a Sin to Pray
I realize the title of this article may have jarred some people a bit. Before you stop reading and label me a heretic, allow me to explain and show you from God’s Word. Consider this passage from the Book of Exodus: “But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. “As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. “As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. “Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.”” (Exodus 14:13–18, NASB95) Probably every person who went to Sunday School at any time as a kid knows this story. God sent Moses back to Egypt at age 80 to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go so they could worship God and become a nation in the Promised Land. Okay, so he didn’t tell him the last part because he certainly would not have let them go. He told Pharaoh they needed to go out of Egypt to worship God and offer sacrifices that were an abomination to the Egyptians. After ten plagues, one for each of the pantheon of Egyptians gods, Pharaoh let the Israelites go.
At first, it looked easy. They went to their neighbors to ask for gold and silver jewelry and other valuable items. The Egyptians gave them all they asked for and they left. God led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Then they arrived at the Red Sea and things changed a bit.
With their backs against the Red Sea, the Israelites learned that Pharaoh had had a change of heart and he was in hot pursuit with his entire army. The people panicked. Moses received the message from God to not be afraid, to stand by, and to see the salvation God would provide. He promised to fight for them.
Moses cried out to God for direction and God told him to quit praying and to go and do what He had told them to do. Moses was to raise his staff and God would part the waters and cause the people to pass through on dry ground. They were to get off their knees and get on their feet and follow God’s plan.
At times, we use, “I will pray about it,” as a way to stall or procrastinate our obedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. When someone asks us to do something that seems strange or is not clear in God’s word, we should definitely pray. But there are some commands in God’s word that make it a sin to stall in prayer. We need to get off our needs, get on our feet, and head out the direction God has so clearly direct.
Just in case you think it strange consider Joshua 7 when God told Joshua to quit praying and deal with Achan’s sin of taking stuff from Jericho which was supposed to be corban or placed under dedication to God. In Acts 1, the angels told the Apostles to stop staring into the sky, but they were to get up and go do what Jesus had told them to do. In Isaiah 6, immediately after the angel took the coal to purify Isaiah’s lips, God called for Isaiah to get off his knees and go tell them people. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God provided a way out of temptation. They did not need to pray about saying no to sin. They simply needed to take the way out that God provided.
Here is the point. I don’t know what Red Sea you are facing. Perhaps it is something you have been praying about. Perhaps it is time to get off your knees and get busy. While there are probably many more important times where we need to pray, there are some situations we do not need to pray about because God has already spoken and we need to jump to it.