Pray, verb: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
That makes me think of a great many Christians in the world; when they are sick and in trouble they will pray; if they are in fear of starving to death for want of food, of freezing through lack of raiment or fuel, then they will call upon the Lord. I know the old Prophet said, “In the day of trouble they draw nigh unto me.” Get out, say I, in my feelings, in regard to such a religion. When I am starving to death it is time for me to be diligent in getting something to eat; when the ship is in a storm, it is then time to look out for the rigging. One may say, “Are you not going down below to pray, in this dreadful storm?” “No, I have no time to pray now, I must take care of the ship.” So it should be with every Latter-day Saint. By and by the storm is over, then let us go down into the cabin and do up our praying in fair weather. That is what “Mormonism” teaches me;
That makes me think of a great many Christians in the world; when they are sick and in trouble they will pray; if they are in fear of starving to death for want of food, of freezing through lack of raiment or fuel, then they will call upon the Lord. I know the old Prophet said, “In the day of trouble they draw nigh unto me.” Get out, say I, in my feelings, in regard to such a religion. When I am starving to death it is time for me to be diligent in getting something to eat; when the ship is in a storm, it is then time to look out for the rigging. One may say, “Are you not going down below to pray, in this dreadful storm?” “No, I have no time to pray now, I must take care of the ship.” So it should be with every Latter-day Saint. By and by the storm is over, then let us go down into the cabin and do up our praying in fair weather. That is what “Mormonism” teaches me
There is no threshold of perfection you must attain in order to qualify for God’s grace. Your prayers do not have to be loud or eloquent or grammatically correct in order to reach heaven. In truth, God does not show favoritism8—the things the world values mean nothing to Him. He knows your heart, and He loves you regardless of your title, financial net worth, or number of Instagram followers.
I know not by what method rare,But this I know, God answers prayer.I know that He has given His wordThat tells me prayer is always heardAnd will be answered, soon or late,And so I pray and calmly wait.I know not if the blessing soughtWill come just in the way I thought,But leave my prayers with Him alone,Whose ways are wiser than my own—Assured that He will grant my quest,Or send some answer far more blessed.
Your children will know the security of a home where dwells the Spirit of the Lord. You will gather them together in that home, as the Church has counseled, and teach them in love. They will know parents who respect one another, and a spirit of respect will grow in their hearts. They will experience the security of the kind word softly spoken, and the tempests of their own lives will be stilled. They will know a father and mother who, living honestly with God, live honestly also with one another and with their fellowmen. They will grow up with a sense of appreciation, having heard their parents in prayer express gratitude for blessings great and small. They will mature with faith in the living God.
The destroying angel of domestic bitterness will pass you by and you will know peace and love throughout your lives which may be extended into all eternity. I could wish for you no greater blessing, and for this I humbly pray in your behalf, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
God then will be your partner, and your daily conversations with him will bring peace into your hearts and a joy into your lives that can come from no other source. Your companionship will sweeten through the years; your love will strengthen. Your appreciation for one another will grow.
I know of no single practice that will have a more salutary effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord, you thank him for one another, in the presence of one another, and then together invoke his blessings upon your lives, your home, your loved ones, and your dreams.
"I have had prayers answered. Those answers were most clear when what I wanted was silenced by an overpowering need to know what God wanted. It is then that the answer from a loving Heavenly Father can be spoken to the mind by the still, small voice and can be written on the heart."
Prayer and fasting will allow us to be susceptible to spiritual promptings. Communicating with Heavenly Father while purposefully abstaining from food and drink allows us to “loose the bands of wickedness [and] to undo the heavy burdens.”18 Prayer, combined with fasting, will provide so that when we “call, … the Lord shall answer; … [and when we] cry, … he shall say, Here I am.”
So while we work and wait together for the answers to some of our prayers, I offer you my apostolic promise that they are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted. But they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternally compassionate parent should answer them. My beloved brothers and sisters, please understand that He who never sleeps nor slumbers2 cares for the happiness and ultimate exaltation of His children above all else that a divine being has to do. He is pure love, gloriously personified, and Merciful Father is His name.
The answer to such questions is “Yes, God can provide miracles instantaneously, but sooner or later we learn that the times and seasons of our mortal journey are His and His alone to direct.” He administers that calendar to every one of us individually. For every infirm man healed instantly as he waits to enter the Pool of Bethesda,3 someone else will spend 40 years in the desert waiting to enter the promised land.4 For every Nephi and Lehi divinely protected by an encircling flame of fire for their faith,5 we have an Abinadi burned at a stake of flaming fire for his.6 And we remember that the same Elijah who in an instant called down fire from heaven to bear witness against the priests of Baal7 is the same Elijah who endured a period when there was no rain for years and who, for a time, was fed only by the skimpy sustenance that could be carried in a raven’s claw.8 By my estimation, that can’t have been anything we would call a “happy meal.”
The point? The point is that faith means trusting God in good times and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf.9 That can be difficult in our modern world when many have come to believe that the highest good in life is to avoid all suffering, that no one should ever anguish over anything.10 But that belief will never lead us to “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”11
With apologies to Elder Neal A. Maxwell for daring to modify and enlarge something he once said, I too suggest that “one’s life … cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.” It simply will not work “to glide naively through life,” saying as we sip another glass of lemonade, “Lord, give me all thy choicest virtues, but be certain not to give me grief, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor opposition. Please do not let anyone dislike me or betray me, and above all, do not ever let me feel forsaken by Thee or those I love. In fact, Lord, be careful to keep me from all the experiences that made Thee divine. And then, when the rough sledding by everyone else is over, please let me come and dwell with Thee, where I can boast about how similar our strengths and our characters are as I float along on my cloud of comfortable Christianity.”
My beloved brothers and sisters, Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable. The path to holiness and happiness here and hereafter is a long and sometimes rocky one. It takes time and tenacity to walk it. But, of course, the reward for doing so is monumental.
I offer you my apostolic promise that [our prayers] are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time or in the way we wanted.
A man must give himself to the matter devotedly desired, in the form of prayer, and then support it with all his works.
That the answer is often overwhelmingly greater than the expressed desire, is only a sign of the love of the Giver, and does not remove the necessity of asking as the first step in obtaining what a person desires. It is probable that no request, addressed to a being of superior intelligence, is refused. However, the answer comes at a time and place not predetermined by man.
If at will he could bring to his aid visible, supernatural beings, to tide him over his difficulties, his need of self-development and self-dependence would become very small, and the man would not grow strong.
God must be, therefore, in possession of other agencies whereby his will may be transmitted to his pleasure to the uttermost confines of space. The chief agent employed by God to communicate his will to the universe is the holy spirit, which must not be confused with the Holy Ghost, the personage who is the third member of the Godhead. The holy spirit permeates all the things of the universe, material and spiritual. By the holy spirit the will of God is transmitted. It forms what may be called the great wireless system of communication among the intelligent beings of the universe. The holy spirit vibrates with intelligence; it takes up the word and will of God as given by him or by his personal agents, and transmits the message to the remotest parts of space.
By the holy spirit, God is always with us, and "is nearer than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."
It is conceivable that the thunders and the lightnings, the movements of the heavenly bodies, the ebb and flow of the oceans, and all the phenomena known to man, are only manifestations of the will of God as transmitted and spread by the measureless, inexhaustible, all-conducting holy spirit.
Prayer is the first and greatest means of reading God's messages, for by intense prayer man gradually places himself in tune with the infinite so far as his request is concerned.
No prayer is unheard.
Seldom is a man greater than his private prayers.
Involving God in the details of our lives is also evidence that we have a real relationship with him, and know him as the loving Father he is. Only approaching God about gigantic calamities keeps him in the great, unknowable category, like Oz, or a tyrannical ruler of some kind, with whom you must request an audience and then come cowering forward. The adversary would love us to see God this way, as a misty being who shouldn’t be bothered with your trivial concerns.
President Monson said, “The Lord is in the details of our lives.” And Elder Ronald A. Rasband has reiterated, “The Lord’s hand is guiding you. By ‘divine design,’ He is in the small details of your life as well as the major milestones.”
The child who has studied and done all he can to pass a test can confidently pray for help from God. Years from now will the test matter? Probably not. But the child knowing God cares, even about his small concerns, matters tremendously.
God has always made it clear that he cares about minutia. Consider his familiar directives: “…out of small things proceedeth that which is great.” (D&C 64:33) and “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). Our lives contain both monumental issues and seemingly small matters. We err when we only come to Heavenly Father with huge problems (in fact, sometimes these may have grown because we neglected the incremental path that got us into this difficulty).
Just as with waiting until it’s a true emergency to get a Priesthood blessing, sometimes we only approach God with major crises, as if there’s a finite barrel of blessings and we don’t want to drain it too quickly. But both of these gifts—Priesthood blessings and prayers—should be utilized more. And if something matters to us—whether it’s a lost toy, wanting a wedding to go well (as Mary did when Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine), or simply to help us solve a daily problem, we should remember that God loves us and is ready to help us when we ask him.
We live in a time when with a single touch or voice command, we can begin searching for answers on almost any topic in the immensity of data stored and organized in a vast and complex network of computers. On the other hand, we have the simplicity of the invitation to begin seeking answers from heaven. “Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you.” Then the Lord promises, “And great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth.”
It is not the words we use particularly that constitute prayer. Prayer does not consist of words, altogether. True, faithful, earnest prayer consists more in the feeling that rises from the heart and from the inward desire of our spirits to supplicate the Lord in humility and faith, that we may recieve his blessings."
we can draw principles of truth from the Prophet Joseph’s experiences that provide insights for receiving our own revelation. For example: We labor under difficulties. We turn to the scriptures to receive wisdom to act. We demonstrate our faith and trust in God. We exert our power to plead with God to help us thwart the adversary’s influence. We offer up the desires of our hearts to God. We focus on His light guiding our life choices and resting upon us when we turn to Him. We realize He knows each of us by name and has individual roles for us to fulfill.7 In addition, Joseph Smith restored the knowledge that we have divine potential and eternal worth. Because of that relationship with our Heavenly Father, I believe He expects us to receive revelation from Him.
This formula makes revelation simple. We are not asking the Lord to tell us what to do, we are asking him to give us the “green light” or “red light” to our decision. This allows us to “counsel with the Lord in all [our] doings” (Alma 37:37) but it also allows us to exercise our agency.
Prayer is important and there's never a bad time for it. Suggesting that it's somehow inappropriate or useless to pray in the wake of horror is like saying it's inappropriate and useless for your children to talk to you when they're faced with a personal crisis. Unless you're the worst parent on planet Earth, you would tell them exactly opposite. Come to me, you say. There's never a bad time to confide in me. And God says the same to us. To pray is to enter into intimate conversation with our Father in Heaven. We should always be carrying on this conversation — "pray unceasingly," Scripture commands — but there's a reason why people cling all the more to God when tragedy strikes. It's the same reason our children, especially when they're young, run to us when they're afraid or in pain. We cannot help them if they don't come to us. If they hide, if they refuse our help, if they shut us out, then there isn't much we can do. Again, this is the case with God.
Prayer does work. Death does not debunk prayer or reveal it as ineffective. That the Christians were slaughtered while at prayer does not mean that their prayers were in vain. Far from it. Heaven is the eternal prayer. It is the completion and fulfillment of every prayer uttered on Earth. The efficacy of prayer is not called into question when a Christian goes from Earthly prayer to the Heavenly, perfected form. Exactly the opposite is true. I'm betting that if we could peek into the next world, we would not see that the prayers of these murdered Christians have gone to waste. Rather, we would see that they have all been finally and eternally and gloriously answered. We were never told, and no Christian believes, that praying will forever inoculate us from suffering and death. Even if we pray all our lives we will still die, just as we will still die even if we eat well and live a healthy lifestyle. But prayer is not meant to save us from death anyway. It is meant to bring us closer to God. In that sense, all prayer "works" and all prayers are answered. Of course, the skeptic demands more than that. He demands proof that God has listened to a specific prayer and answered it in a demonstrative fashion, by causing some miraculous thing to happen or preventing some horrific evil from happening. "Show me that prayer works," he scoffs, "and then I'll believe it." He's lying. He will not believe it, even when he's shown.
Prayer will lift us and draw us together as individuals, as families, as a church, and as a world. Prayer will influence scientists and help them toward discoveries of vaccines and medications that will end this pandemic. Prayer will comfort those who have lost a loved one. It will guide us in knowing what to do for our own personal protection.
No matter where you live, what language you speak, or the challenges you face, God hears and answers you in His own way and in His own time. Because we are His children, we can approach Him to seek help, solace, and a renewed desire to make a positive difference in the world. Praying for justice, peace, the poor, and the sick is often not enough. After we kneel in prayer, we need to get up from our knees and do what we can to help—to help both ourselves and others.10 The scriptures are full of examples of people of faith who combined prayer with action to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others.
The world’s current chaotic situation may seem daunting as we consider the multitude of issues and challenges. But it is my fervent testimony that if we will pray and ask Heavenly Father for needed blessings and guidance, we will come to know how we can bless our families, neighbors, communities, and even the countries in which we live.
During the past few months I have had the impression come to me that the best way to help the current world situation is for all people to rely more fully upon God and to turn their hearts to Him through sincere prayer. Humbling ourselves and seeking heaven’s inspiration to endure or conquer what is before us will be our safest and surest way to move confidently forward through these troubling times.
The time will come when we will thank Him for saying no to us with regard to some of our petitions. Happily, God in His omniscience can distinguish between our surface needs (over which we often pray most fervently) and our deep and eternal needs. He can distinguish what we ask for today and place it in relationship to what we need for all eternity. He will bless us, according to our everlasting good, if we are righteous.
We sometimes find ourselves praying for others when we should be doing things for them. Prayers are not to be a substitute for service, but a spur thereto.
We need also to be careful about our petitions in yet another way by remembering to whom we pray and His omniscience. C. S. Lewis observed, "I've heard a man offer a prayer for a sick person which really amounted to a diagnosis followed by advice as to how God should treat the patient." (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer [New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World], p. 20.) It is not condescension but humility that is required as we approach our Father in heaven.
When we pray, we are not conveying any information to God that He does not already have. Nor, when we confess our sins before Him, is it news to Him that we have misbehaved. It is vital, therefore, that we open our souls to Him and tell Him what our concerns are now, as well as acknowledge what we now are, for this is a part of the process of aligning ourselves with His will. We cannot, for the purposes of real prayer, hurriedly dress our words and attitudes in tuxedos when our shabby life is in rags. More than we realize, being honest with God in our prayers helps us to be more honest with ourselves. Furthermore, some of us actually feel we are too good for a petitionary prayer, especially when life is going reasonably well. It is part of our childish resentment of our dependency on God. We are also sometimes too proud to pray over small things, and thus we get out of practice. Then the moment of agony comes.
Jesus' tutoring but disapproving response was: "Ye know not what ye ask." (Matthew 20:22.) Clearly, when our prayers are uninspired, we petition for things we should not ask for, even though we do so innocently. This is, in effect, what we do when we pray and "ask amiss." (James 4:3.) When we ask amiss, God, being perfect, must reject our petitions: "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." (3 Nephi 18:20. Italics added.) The task is to draw close enough to the Lord that we progress to the point where we petition Him according to His will, not ours. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." (1 John 5:14.) In modern revelations the Lord has declared His willingness to grant us the requests contained in our petitions if what we ask for is expedient for us. (D&C 88:64-65.) When we become sufficiently purified and cleansed from sin, we can ask what we will in the name of Jesus "and it shall be done." (D&C 50:29.) The Lord even promises us that when one reaches a certain spiritual condition, "it shall be given you what you shall ask." (D&C 50:30.)
One can pray and yet not really pray. Prayers can be routinized and made very superficial. When this happens, there is very little communication and very little growth. Yet, given the times in which we live, improving our prayers should be one of our deepest desires if we are genuinely serious about growing spiritually. Prayer may not be a hard doctrine, but it can be a very deep and soul-satisfying experience. It is the means by which we can draw close to our Heavenly Father and understand better His deep doctrines.
As to the questions asked—even by faithful Saints—such as, "If what is going to happen is 'all set,' why pray?," the answer is that God foresees, but He does not compromise our agency. All the outcomes are not, for our purposes, "all set." True, God's foreseeing includes our prayers, our fasting, our faith, and the results that will thereby be achieved. But until our mortal actions occur and our decisions are made, things are not "all set." The Father foresaw the Atonement, but the Atonement was not wrought until the very moment of Christ's death when He gave up His spirit, which He had the power to retain.
It is through true prayer that we can refine and adjust our desires to those of the Lord's so that we do not "ask amiss." In prayer we can actually learn more than we imagine about His will for us. In prayer we can learn more how to seek the Spirit, so that even our very prayers will be inspired.
In those moments our desires of the day may have to be sacrificed to our needs in our endless tomorrows. A mortal life may need to be "shortened" by twenty years as we might view it—but if so, it may be done in order for special services to be rendered by that individual in the spirit world, services that will benefit thousands of new neighbors with whom that individual will live in all of eternity. Perhaps this reality is yet another reason and reminder why we are urged to pray only for "our daily bread," for disciples must be portable. Our omniloving and omniscient Father will release us when it is best for us to be released. But each such release of a righteous person is also a call to new labors!
Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter. It is a sacred privilege. It is based upon eternal, unchanging principles.
A man stands tallest when upon his knees.
Unfortunately, prosperity, abundance, honor, and praise lead some men to the false security of haughty self-assurance and the abandonment of the inclination to pray. Conversely, turmoil, tribulation, sickness, and death crumble the castles of men's pride and bring them to their knees to plead for power from on High.
When a member of your bishopric stopped by your home and asked that you serve the Lord as a Scoutmaster, a teacher of a Beehive class, or perhaps a secretary or executive in the Sunday School, did you actually stop and contemplate the true meaning of your acceptance? Did you look upon your assignment in terms of twenty-four Boy Scouts, or twelve Beehive girls, or perhaps an obligation to devote two hours each Sunday morning? Or did you reflect upon the real meaning of your opportunity as the words of the Lord found lodgment in your heart: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." (D&C 18:10.) If so, you were humbled as you became aware that God, our Eternal Father, and His Beloved Son had chosen you to play a vital role in a glorious cause. "This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39.) First, the successful leader has faith. He recognizes that the greatest force in this world today is the power of God as it works through man. He takes comfort from the very real assurance that divine help can be his blessing. He is, through his faith, a believer in prayer, knowing that prayer provides power-spiritual power, and that prayer provides peace-spiritual peace. He knows and he teaches youth that the recognition of a power higher than man himself does not in any sense debase him; rather, it exalts him. He further declares, "If we will but realize that we have been created in the image of God, we will not find Him difficult to approach." This knowledge, acquired through faith, accounts for the inner calm that characterizes the successful leader. Second, the successful leader lives as he teaches. He is honest with others. He is honest with himself. He is honest with God. He is honest by habit and as a matter of course. Third, the successful leader works willingly. Formula "W" applies to him. What is Formula "W"? Simply this: Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't. Victory is bound to come to him who gives all of himself to the cause he represents when there be truth in the cause. Fourth, the successful leader leads with love. Where love prevails in a class, discipline problems vanish. Fifth, the successful leader is prepared. In his mind, he has carefully stored full information with respect to his assignment. He knows the program. He knows what is expected of him. He does not approach his assignment just hoping or wishing for success. In his heart, he has made spiritual preparation, too. He has earned, through his faithfulness, the companionship of the Holy Spirit. He has knowledge to give. He has a testimony to share. Sixth, the successful leader achieves results. To begin with, he recognizes that no aim leads to no end. In short, he develops goals of accomplishment. If he be a Scoutmaster, he determines that each boy will achieve. You see such a leader at every court of honor in full uniform, his boys receiving award upon award. Their leader has taught them that we were not placed on earth to fail, but rather to succeed; that we cannot rest content with mediocrity when excellence is within our reach. Such a leader recognizes that his attitude determines his altitude. He knows full well that nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm, unless it is a lack of enthusiasm. He carries others to accomplishment through the sheer strength of his overwhelming desire to bring success to his assignment. The leader who gets the job done is one who inspires confidence, who motivates action, and who generates enthusiasm. You will ever recognize his work-for it will be well done.
Our service is to save souls. May I suggest five helpful guidelines: 1. Take time to think 2. Make room for faith. The prophet Isaiah declared that man's ways are not God's ways. (Isaiah 55:8.) 3. Stand firm for truth. Our leaders of youth become the stable force, the port of safety in the storm-tossed seas, the watchman on the tower, even the guide at the crossroads. Youth looks to us. How do we stand? May we answer: 4. Reach out to help 5. Provide place for prayer. Our task is larger than ourselves. We need God's divine help.
I reaffirm once more the promise that echoes through its pages: that if you “ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ,” He mercifully “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”25 I can assure you that He will give you the answer in a very personal way, as He has done for me and many others around the world. Your experience will be as glorious and sacred for you as Joseph Smith’s experiences were for him, as well as for the first witnesses and for all who have sought to receive a witness of the integrity and trustworthiness of this sacred book.
It is right to pray and it is right to keep our powder dry.