Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Education and Religion
When You Pray, Move Your Feet: Prayer in Action

When You Pray, Move Your Feet: Prayer in Action

Last updated on: January 15, 2025 at 12:00 pm by Lee Ann B. Marino

When You Pray, Move Your Feet: Prayer in Action 2024-12-18T19:22:31-05:00 Lee Ann B. Marino

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Most of us look around and see massive changes to the world. Things that were unfathomable maybe 30 or 40 years ago are commonplace now. There are a number of different responses to these changes, but most people aren’t sure how to handle them. Many turn to prayer, Scripture, or social activism to solve the perceived issues. Even more are uncertain as to what to do in these situations, in times when we need to move from prayer to action as much as ever. Does that mean we become activists? Should we stop all we are doing and devote ourselves exclusively to prayer and fasting? Should we all go into ministry?

The answer is simpler than you might think. To put prayer to action, every one of us needs to do one thing: When you pray, move your feet.

Group of people praying

Photo by Luis Quintero: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-people-in-stadium-3612706/

Avoiding action

Among Christians, it’s not uncommon to hear a few oft-repeated expressions:

“I’m waiting on God!”
“God needs to do something for me…right now!”
“God will make a way.”

These phrases are often stated in situations that, in one form or another, might seem impossible to that person. There can be any number of reasons why these situations seem impossible, but it’s usually because whatever conditions must exist to bring them about don’t exist. The problems, situations, and circumstances seem greater than humanly reasonable, and the only answer for them is divine intervention.

There’s nothing wrong with any of these phrases. They can all stand as powerful declarations of faith, and in the right context, stand as powerful declarations of faith. When we’ve stepped out in obedience and there is nothing more we can do, we must wait for God’s fruition. There’s a catch in that last sentence, though. Did you notice it? To wait on God, we must first step out in obedience. Many times, we aren’t waiting on God to make a way for us – God is waiting for us to be obedient to Him.

Prayer, faith, and belief aren’t excuses to avoid action. Before we say we are waiting on God, we should ask ourselves if we’ve obeyed Him.

Faith isn’t a magic trick

Many years ago, I heard Gloria Copeland make the statement, “God is not going to do for you what He told you to do.” I remember stopping when I heard it, pausing to consider its words. Sometimes I think we are tempted to treat faith as if it’s a magic trick. We hope if we wait long enough, God will wave a magic wand and change our lives…because we are unwilling to make changes ourselves. James 1:22 tells us:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (NIV)

In season and out of it, we are called to live our faith. Living our faith means doing more than waiting on God to change; it also means changing ourselves. Wherein we read about the character we are called to have, we are, by faith and perseverance, called to align with it. God doesn’t transform us by waving a magic wand, but through the disciplines of everyday spiritual life.

When you pray, move your feet

God hasn’t given us the gift of prayer to excuse our inactivity. Prayer, as communication with God, goes more than one way. We either speak or listen first (whichever is required), and then we do, recognizing God has sent us into this world to make a difference. We can’t begin to make that difference if we don’t put our prayers – those words we speak and those we receive – into action.

When I think about spiritual movement, I always think of the Apostle Peter. In some ways, I feel like Peter gets a bad rap. We only remember the part of the story where he sunk into the lake, but not the first part, where he put his faith into action in a way the others did not.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” He said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. (Matthew 14:25-29, NIV)

Peter wasn’t perfect, but he was the only one willing to put one foot in front of the other and step out of that boat. The rest were captives of fear, praying for a revelation, but too afraid to step up and take it.

God doesn’t want us to spend our lives praying without action. In this day, this year, we must turn our faith into action – while we pray, let’s move our feet.

But how?

Inspired to do

Our prayer lives serve as an ignition for us to move and step out in greater faith. By learning about the saints of old, such should inspire us toward greater obedience to God. In carefully studying the Bible, we see that God worked the miraculous as His people walked in obedience. Peter wasn’t too busy praying for a miracle to stop him from getting up and out of the boat. Sometimes our faith consists of little steps that make a big difference. Our faith, lived everyday, makes a huge difference.

If you feel called to make a grand gesture, take a huge step, work in advocacy, or revolutionize the world, then go for it. If you know you are where you are supposed to be – whether that’s taking care of family, friends, community, or your church, then live your faith through those everyday actions. Even though they aren’t flashy suggestions, some activities you can undertake to move from prayer to action include:

Doing regular activities with a good attitude
Showing others in your life how much you appreciate them
Volunteering in the church or your local community
Becoming more active in church
Listening when others speak
Monitor things like honesty and integrity in action
Do something nice for someone, just because

We definitely have the prayer part of things down. We know how to go to God. Now we need to learn how to move our feet, so we can watch God work miracles through us.

General Christian

Home and Religion

Spiritual development

christian spirituality

doing in prayer

prayer

prayer in action

About Lee Ann B. Marino

Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino, Ph.D., D.Min., D.D. (”The Spitfire”) is “everyone’s favorite theologian” leading Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z as apostle of Spitfire Apostolic Ministries. Her work encompasses study and instruction on leadership training and development, typology, Pneumatology, conceptual theology, Ephesians 4:11 ministry, and apostolic theology. She is author of over thirty-five books, host of the top twenty percentile podcast Kingdom Now, and serves as founder and overseer of Sanctuary International Fellowship Tabernacle - SIFT and Chancellor of Apostolic Covenant Theological Seminary. Dr. Marino has over twenty-five years of experience in ministry, leadership, counseling, mentoring, education, and business. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

January 8, 2025

Nine Faith-Building Activities to Start the New Year

Next Post

January 22, 2025 Why Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category BIble education Bible history Bible study bible women church history Cult education current events holidays Leadership Ministry queer events Spiritual development Uncategorized wellbeing women in christianity women in ministry world religion

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Pride deceived those who dwell in the clefts of the rocks and make their home on the heights. Which nation was being addressed?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ammon Moab Philistia Edom