Tag Archives: Prayer

Thoughts on the Brother of Jared

Yesterday during sacrament meeting I was reminded of the story of the brother of Jared.  As he goes before the Lord,  he is very aware of his own shortcomings and weakness.  Just a few verses prior,  the Lord chastised him for failing to call upon the Lord.

It also reminds me of the BYU professor who was upset at his kid,  told him to go to his room until he was told he could come out and then he forgot. Hours later the child came out with a sobbing-stutter,  “Daddy,  can we ever be friends again?”

So many times we feel as though we have been sent to our room spiritually,  and we’re brutally aware of our shortcomings,  but there we are,  in need of the Lord’s grace and assistance.

But here is the bold faith of the Brother of Jared, 

“We are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires” (Ether 3:2).

And so he asks the Lord to touch those 16 stones,  and in a wonderful moment,  the Brother of Jared receives so much more than he ever could have hoped to have come out of this experience.  He becomes one of the first to see Jesus Christ as he will appear in His mortal ministry.

I find so much hope in this account.  In so many ways we are like the Brother of Jared,  in need of some light for our journey. We know our weaknesses and shortcomings,  we may have even made big mistakes in the past,  but not withstanding,  we need that light.

When we look throughout the Book of Mormon,  is there any prayer for help that goes unheeded in the Book of Mormon? It’s beautiful. And as is so wonderfully portrayed in this story,  so often the Lord’s response far exceeds our humble hopes. Much like the father in the story of the prodigal son, we often find the Lord runs to our aid when we take those steps in His direction.

So,  like the Brother of Jared, when we come forward with our best effort, much like those simple stones, there is no reason we can’t see the finger of the Lord bring light into our lives.

The Lord is in the Details

President Thomas S. Monson taught,

“My brothers and sisters, our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance. I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is in the details of our lives.”

“Consider the Blessings”
2012 October General Conference

Pray Always (2 Nephi 32:8)

From time to time, I find myself wondering if in this or that moment it would be appropriate to say a prayer. I know there are a few scripture mastery verses out there on the subject, so I always what is the hold up, even for myself. The Lord is pretty clear on the subject:’pray always.’

For me, the most telling verse is in 2 Nephi, chapter 32, just before an exhortation to pray always.

“If ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray” (2 Nephi 32:8. emphasis added).

From that, I conclude that the adversary is engaged in a deliberate, coordinated effort to break the habit and predisposition to pray. Any distance or time he can put between us and our Father in Heaven gives him a window of opportunity to make us miserable like unto himself (see 2 Nephi 2:27). Where so many blessings are contingent on our asking, I can see why disrupting our desires and intentions to pray would be key for him.

If we can recognize more readily the promptings to pray and the temptation to not pray, I suspect that knowledge alone will help us a great deal to put us in a better position to do the will of the Lord in a given situation.

To do that, let’s consider the Lord’s Prayer. When we consider the different aspects of the Lord’s prayer, what can they teach us recognizing the influences of the evil spirit that discourages us to pray?

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

A few observations:

1. ‘As we forgive our debtors’

Effective prayer involves personal commitment to act in order to receive blessings. The adversary certainly would have us be passive in our prayers.

2. Give Us Our Daily Bread

Prayer, and our reliance on God is a daily matter. Our relationship is a daily experience. Satan would have us grow complacent and lax in the maintenance of that relationship.

Howard W. Hunter taught,

“If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night–always–not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help” (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 39).

3. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This statement reminds me that I am the servant, and the one who needs guidance (not the other way around).

President Gordon B. Hinckley said,

“The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries–we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469).

Conclusion

Some of the best advice I received regarding the mindset of prayer was the imagining the Lord was there in front of you as you prayed. As I remember that there is not just another person listening to my prayers, that it is the Eternal and Infinite God and Father of us all, and let that faith guide my thoughts and words, suddenly prayer becomes a much more honest process.

“But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul”

Sketchnote: “Beware Concerning Yourselves”

It’s not a sketchnote in the truest sense of the method, but still a creative release while capturing meaning from Elder Anthony D. Perkin’s priesthood session address. I loved the imagery and what started as a sketch kind of took on a life of it’s own.

“Brethren, each of you has entered, or will soon enter, into the oath and covenant of the Melchizedek Priesthood. In that covenant is embedded a glorious journey that begins with receiving both the lesser and higher priesthoods, progresses through magnifying our callings, and climbs ever upward to God’s grandest vistas, until we receive ‘all that [the] Father hath.’

The wise designer of that celestial road has erected caution signs for our journey. The oath and covenant of the priesthood contains this soul-searching warning: ‘I now give unto you a commandment to beware concerning yourselves.'”

Read, listen or watch the address here.

Sincere Prayer

Joseph Fielding Smith taught us something about praying with real intent when he said,

“I have never had very much confidence in the proclamation or the request that was made asking the people of this country to pray for peace, for the very good reason that it was not sincere. We cannot pray to the Lord and say: ‘Listen to our cause, bring victory to us, do what we want you to do, but don’t ask us to do what you want us to do.'”

“Power of Repentance”
October 1944 General Conference

Building Faith

Richard G. Scott said,

“The Lord knows your needs. When you ask with honesty and real intent, He will prompt you to do that which will increase your ability to act in faith. With consistent practice, faith will become a vibrant, powerful, uplifting, inspiring force in your life. As you walk to the boundary of your understanding into the twilight of uncertainty, exercising faith, you will be led to find solutions you would not obtain otherwise.”

“The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing”
April 2003 General Conference

Joseph Smith: Pattern of Humble Prayer

Henry B. Eyring taught,

“Joseph Smith’s mission was unique, yet his humble prayer can be a helpful model for us. He began, as we must, with faith in a loving God who can and wants to communicate with us and help us. That faith was rooted in impressions which came to him as he pondered the words of God’s servants in the scriptures. We can and must go often and carefully to the word of God. If we become casual in our study of the scriptures, we will become casual in our prayers.”

“Prayer”
October 2001 General Conference

Prayer and Trivial Matters

Dallin H. Oaks taught,

The Spirit of the Lord is not likely to give us revelations on matters that are trivial. I once heard a young woman in a testimony meeting praise the spirituality of her husband, indicating that he submitted every question to the Lord. She told how he accompanied her shopping and would not even choose between different brands of canned vegetables without making his selection a matter of prayer. That strikes me as improper. I believe the Lord expects us to use the intelligence and experience he has given us to make these kinds of choices.

(Dallin H. Oaks, “Revelation,” Speeches of the Year, 1981, p. 26)

Marion G. Romney and His Wife Ida

Elder Holland shared this story in a devotional he gave while President of BYU. He quotes generously from Marion G. Romney’s biographer, Elder F. Burton Howard.

In 1967 Sister Romney suffered a serious stroke. The doctors told then—Elder Romney that the damage from the hemorrhage was severe. They offered to keep her alive by artificial means but did not recommend it. The family braced themselves for the worst. Brother Romney confided to those closest to him that in spite of his anguished, personal yearning for Ida’s restored health and continued companionship, above all he wanted “the Lord’s will to be done and to take what he needed to take without whimpering.”

As the days wore on, Sister Romney became less responsive. She had, of course, been administered to, but Elder Romney was “reluctant to counsel the Lord about the matter.” Because of his earlier unsuccessful experience of praying that he and Ida might have children, he knew that he could never ask in prayer for something which was not in harmony with the will of the Lord.

He fasted that he might know how to show the Lord that he had faith and that he would accept God’s will in their lives. He wanted to make sure that he had done all he could do. She continued to fail.

One evening in a particularly depressed state, with Ida unable to speak or recognize him, Brother Romney went home and turned as he always had to the scriptures in an effort to commune with the Lord. He picked up the Book of Mormon and continued where he had left off the night before.

He had been reading in the book of Helaman about the prophet Nephi, who had been falsely condemned and unfairly charged with sedition. Following a miraculous deliverance from his accusers, Nephi returned home pondering the things which he had experienced. As he did so he heard a voice.

Although Marion Romney had read that story many times before, it now struck him this night as a personal revelation. The words of the scripture so touched his heart that for the first time in weeks he felt he had tangible peace. It seemed as if the Lord was speaking directly to him. The scripture read:

Blessed art thou, . . . for those things which thou hast done. . . . And thou . . . hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

And now, because thou hast done this . . . I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. [Helaman 10:4–5]

There was the answer. He had sought only to know and obey the will of the Lord, and the Lord had spoken. He fell to his knees and poured out his heart, and as he concluded his prayer with the phrase, “Thy will be done,” he either felt or actually heard a voice which said, “It is not contrary to my will that Ida be healed.”

Brother Romney rose to his feet. It was past two o’clock in the morning, but he knew what he must do. Quickly he put on his tie and coat, then went out into the night to visit Ida in the hospital.

He arrived shortly before three o’clock. His wife’s condition was unchanged. She did not stir as he placed his hands upon her pale forehead. With undeviating faith, he invoked the power of the priesthood in her behalf. He pronounced a simple blessing and then uttered the incredible promise that she would recover her health and mental powers and yet perform a great mission upon the earth.

Even though he did not doubt, Elder Romney was astonished to see Ida’s eyes open as he concluded the blessing. Somewhat stunned by all that had happened, he sat down on the edge of the bed only to hear his wife’s frail voice for the first time in months. She said, “For goodness’ sake, Marion, what are you doing here?” He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He said, “Ida, how are you?” With that flash of humor so characteristic of both of them, she replied, “Compared to what, Marion? Compared to what?”

Ida Romney began her recovery from that very moment, soon left her hospital bed, and lived to see her husband sustained as a member of the First Presidency of the Church, “a great mission upon the earth” indeed (F. Burton Howard, Marion G. Romney: His Life and Faith [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988], pp. 137–42)

Spencer Kimball Called as an Apostle

The following is an excerpt from the journal of Spencer W. Kimball:

No peace had yet come, though I had prayed for it almost unceasingly. . . . I turned toward the hills. I had no objective. I wanted only to be alone. I had begun a fast. . . .

My weakness overcame me again. Hot tears came flooding down my cheeks as I made no effort to mop them up. I was accusing myself, and condemning myself and upbraiding myself. I was praying aloud for special blessings from the Lord. I was telling him that I had not asked for this position, that I was incapable of doing the work, that I was imperfect and weak and human, that I was unworthy of so noble a calling, though I had tried hard and my heart had been right. I knew that I must have been at least partly responsible for offenses and misunderstandings which a few people fancied they had suffered at my hands. I realized that I had been petty and small many times. I did not spare myself. A thousand things passed through my mind. Was I called by revelation? . . .

If I could only have the assurance that my call had been inspired most of my other worries would be dissipated. . . .I knew that I must have His acceptance before I could go on. I stumbled up the hill and onto the mountain, as the way became rough. I faltered some as the way became steep. No paths were there to follow; I climbed on and on. Never had I prayed before as I now prayed. What I wanted and felt I must have was an assurance that I was acceptable to the Lord. I told Him that I neither wanted nor was worthy of a vision or appearance of angels or any special manifestation. I wanted only the calm peaceful assurance that my offering was accepted. Never before had I been tortured as I was now being tortured. And the assurance did not come. . . .

I mentally beat myself and chastised myself and accused myself. As the sun came up and moved in the sky I moved with it, lying in the sun, and still I received no relief. I sat up on the cliff and strange thoughts came to me: all this anguish and suffering could be ended so easily from this high cliff and then came to my mind the temptations of the Master when he was tempted to cast Himself down—then I was ashamed for having placed myself in a comparable position and trying to be dramatic. . . . I was filled with remorse because I had permitted myself to place myself . . . in a position comparable, in a small degree, to the position the Saviour found Himself in when He was tempted, and . . . I felt I had cheapened the experiences of the Lord, having compared mine with His. Again I challenged myself and told myself that I was only trying to be dramatic and sorry for myself.

. . . I lay on the cool earth. The thought came that I might take cold, but what did it matter now. There was one great desire, to get a testimony of my calling, to know that it was not human and inspired by ulterior motives, kindly as they might be. How I prayed! How I suffered! How I wept! How I struggled! [Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E. Kimball, Jr., Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1977), p. 192–95]