For so many years in a row, Christians have been compelled to pray without ceasing for their various countries around the world. They have prayed and continue to pray, fervently contending for the souls of their countries without giving up.

Since the Bible commands us to pray without tiring, we behave as if we are truly delivering, but what I see in most of these prayers falls far short of God’s expectations of what should be done. Elijah prayed that it would not rain and the land was actually without rain for three and a half years. When he prayed again, he ministered prophetic words into the life of Ahab, the king, to make God believe instead of Elijah, the prophet (1 Kings 18:1-46). Elijah, however, did not forget to back up every sentence he made with an act of faith.

For any of us to create change in the various countries of our origin, that person must be able to back up their prayers with action. Prayer with action is what the Bible describes as the fervent (heartfelt, continual) prayer of a righteous man. It is prayer that makes tremendous power available to us. It is dynamic in its operation. It is the kind of sustained faith that is marked by a deep feeling of conviction.

Jesus in his days, after retiring to some quiet places to pray, launched himself with authority over all the powers of darkness that opposed him. He didn’t relax in the places of prayer, he just acted! What we see today is the complete opposite of what a well-intentioned prayer should be. We are almost dominated by the mistaken notion of a praying robot. God has a standard, telling us that not all elaborate and well publicized prayer sessions are answered by God. The idea that once we have prayed, it doesn’t matter who spoke those words of prayer, that they are answered and things settled, nauseating. It is very important that we note the fact that God hears and honors the prayers of the righteous: man with clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vain things, nor sworn deceitfully (Psalm 24:4).

Therefore, it is a totally incorrect and totally incomplete idea to believe that God answers all forms of prayer, no matter who says the prayer. No sensible person has ever prayed to God for prosperity and received a positive response when he refused to participate in a lucrative enterprise. You can imagine walking into the bathroom after praying to God for a successful bath, but you refuse to do the sensible thing to pour water on your body. People have commercialized prayer in such a way that prayer means more than talking to God about a serious subject. God may still be interested in our prayers today, if we can look deeper within ourselves as individuals or groups and remove the self-object that always distracts us and face the fact. There are so many other practical concerns around us that we can attend to while we pray. It does not matter in which sector of the country we want things to change. Most importantly, only an individual can sincerely effect that change, if he/she could look beyond the current way and manner in which we pray today.

There will be a total transformation and revolution in our power and energy sector, health, education and other sectors of our economy if we could attend the prayer sessions with the practical approach to solve our national problems together. We must not continue to be praying people who are at home with corrupt practices and celebrate the corrupt people in and around us.

Finally, as we pray that the Lord will grant our leaders the requisite insights and wisdom to do what is right and necessary to renew every sector of our countries’ economies, let us not forget that we have a practical role to play as individuals and as a group in exposing and kill the spirit of corruption wherever we are.