“O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant…”

– Nehemiah 1:11 (KJV)

 

There’s an old story I absolutely love about a preacher walking through the desert.

He’s been walking through nothing but sand, dirt, heat, and basically a whole lot of nothing when suddenly he comes across this incredible oasis.

And I’m not talking about one sad little cactus hanging on for dear life.

This place is beautiful.

Trees. Crops. Water. Green grass. Plants growing everywhere. Somebody has taken a piece of barren desert and turned it into something incredible.

The preacher sees the man who has been working the land, and instead of saying, “Man, this place looks amazing,” he gets a little indignant with him.

He walks up and says, “You know, none of this would be possible without God.”

Almost like he needs to remind the guy who deserves the credit.

The man doesn’t argue with him.

He doesn’t get defensive.

He doesn’t puff his chest out and say, “Actually, preacher, you should see how hard I work.”

He just looks around at everything he’s built and calmly says, “Oh, I know. God gets full credit for all of this.”

Then he pauses.

“But you should have seen this place before I got here. It was just a desert.”

I love that story.

Because both men are right.

God provided the dirt.

God provided the seed.

God provided the water.

God provided the sunshine.

God gave that man the muscles in his back, the brain in his head, the ability to work, and every breath he took while doing it.

God provided everything necessary for the oasis.

But there was still one little problem.

Somebody had to grab a shovel.

And I think Christians sometimes get this backward.

We pray for the oasis and then sit in the sand waiting for palm trees to magically pop out of the ground.

“God, grow my business.”

Cool. Did you make the call?

“God, fix my marriage.”

Great. Did you have the conversation?

“God, give me a new opportunity.”

Awesome. Did you apply?

“God, use me.”

Perfect. Did you get off your butt and make yourself available to be used?

We want God to provide the harvest—and He does.

But sometimes we’re standing there asking God for a harvest while the seed He already gave us is still sitting in our pocket.

Prayer matters. Prayer comes first. But at some point, somebody still has to grab the shovel.

We pray for a better marriage but refuse to have the hard conversation. We pray for the business to grow but never make the sales call. We pray for a new opportunity but never submit the application. We pray for direction, get an answer that makes us uncomfortable, and immediately go back to praying as if God might change His mind and give us an easier one.

At some point, prayer has to produce movement.

That does not mean we pray less. It means we understand what prayer is for.

Look at Nehemiah.

When Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem was broken down and its gates had been burned, he did not immediately charge off like some cowboy with a hammer. He sat down. He wept. He mourned. He fasted. And he prayed.

Prayer came first.

That matters.

Nehemiah did not build his plan and then ask God to bless whatever he had already decided to do. He went to God first. He confessed. He listened. He asked for favor. He got his heart right before he got his hands dirty.

But Nehemiah also did not finish praying and say, “Well, I guess the wall is God’s problem now.”

He moved.

He went before the king, knowing that conversation carried real risk. He asked for permission to leave. He asked for letters that would give him safe passage. He asked for timber. He traveled to Jerusalem. When he got there, he did not call a committee meeting and order matching T-shirts. He went out at night and personally inspected the damage.

Then he organized people and started rebuilding.

Prayer was not Nehemiah’s substitute for action.

Prayer determined his action.

And that is where this devotional gets a little uncomfortable, because some of us have gotten very good at using prayer to delay obedience.

“I’m praying about it.”

Okay. Good. You should.

But you have been praying about it for eleven months. Has God really been silent for eleven months, or did He give you an answer in month one that required you to do something you did not want to do?

There is a difference between waiting on God and hiding behind God.

Sometimes waiting is exactly what He asks us to do. Scripture is full of seasons of waiting. But waiting on God is still obedience. Hiding behind prayer because action scares us is something completely different.

This series you are reading actually started that way.

Early one Saturday morning, I was driving to train a company. I knew I needed to keep writing devotionals for God First Life Next, but I did not know what I was supposed to write about next. And if I am being completely transparent, it would have been really easy to keep putting it off.

So while I was driving, I started talking to God.

Not some fancy, polished prayer. Just me driving down the road saying, basically, “God, what do You want me to write? What do You want me to say?”

And this idea kept coming back: TAKE ACTION.

Knock on the door. Pray, then move. Keep building when things look stalled. Keep building even when you cannot see the rain.

There it was.

Now I had a choice.

I could say, “Thanks, God. Great idea,” go teach my Saturday training, get busy Monday morning running companies, and let the idea disappear into the giant graveyard of good intentions.

Or I could grab the shovel.

So I started working on the devotionals.

You are reading one of them right now.

God gave me the seed. I still had to plant the freaking thing.

And I wonder how many seeds God has already handed you.

Maybe you keep asking Him for a harvest while the seed is still sitting in your pocket.

Maybe you keep praying for God to change your finances while refusing to look at the numbers. Maybe you are asking Him to repair your marriage while pride keeps your mouth shut. Maybe you are praying for a business opportunity while refusing to make the call because rejection might hurt. Maybe you are asking God to use you while saying no every time using you becomes inconvenient.

We want God to create the oasis.

Sometimes He sends a shovel.

Nehemiah prayed first. Then he stood before the king. Then he traveled. Then he inspected. Then he organized. Then he built.

And even after the work started, opposition came. People mocked them. Threatened them. Tried to distract them. Nehemiah did not interpret resistance as automatic proof that he had misunderstood God. He kept praying, kept discerning, and kept building.

That is important too.

Taking action with God does not mean every step becomes easy. Sometimes obedience looks a whole lot like work.

So pray first.

Seriously. Do not skip that part. Ask God what He wants instead of asking Him to rubber-stamp what you want.

Then listen.

And when He gives you the next step, take it.

Make the call. Apologize. Start writing. Open the spreadsheet. Ask the question. Apply. Build. Serve. Get help. End the thing He told you to end. Begin the thing He told you to begin.

Grab the shovel.

Because you can pray for an oasis until your knees hurt, but if God has already handed you the seed, shown you the ground, and put a shovel within reach, maybe the next prayer is not, “God, why haven’t You done something?”

Maybe it is, “God, give me the courage to do what You already told me to do.”

Then get off your happy butt and start digging.

Take Action

What have you been praying about that God may have already given you a next step on? Write down the next physical action you can take. Then do it today. Not the whole plan. Just the next shovel-full.