“A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him, ‘The first’” (Mt 21:28-31).
C.T. Studd, in his classic little book Chocolate Soldier, writes: “We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism. We need as many meetings for action as for prayer—perhaps more. Every orthodox prayer meeting is opened by God saying to His people, ‘Go work today; pray that laborers be sent into My vineyard.’ It is continued by the Christian’s response, ‘I go, Lord, wherever You send me’…But if it ends in nobody going anywhere, it had better never been held at all. Like faith, prayer without works is dead.”