23 DIY privacy and security settings for your Windows

Imagine someone stole your computer and now has access to all your sensitive information just because you weren’t careful enough to secure it on your computer. You wouldn’t like that, would you? In…

独家优惠奖金 100% 高达 1 BTC + 180 免费旋转

What the early events of the Restoration teach us about prayer

Parable of the Father in a Hospital

There was a man who worked in a hospital who was quite concerned about one of his children. The child was having problems sleeping and the father knew something was not right. He managed to get a meeting with several physicians, a psychologist, and several other medical professionals to ask their advice. The father started out describing the child’s symptoms.

She’s not sleeping through the night.
Sometimes she cries at night.

Even as he said the words he could almost read their minds as the experienced professionals mentally replied,

All kids do that sometimes. There’s nothing pathological about that.

The father tried to describe the symptoms further but the words came out very much the same, adding that he’d had experience with other children and this was different.

She isn’t sleeping well.
She’s not herself.

One by one the doctors in the room began to leave.
They just left.
To them the issue was too inconsequential. Too obvious.
Soon only one person was left, and they recommended that the father talk to a receptionist who could set him up with a formal appointment to consult with a doctor.

A Metaphor for Prayer

How would you feel if you were that parent? knowing something is wrong, looking for help, and finding that your concerns are met with indifferent silence by almost everyone.

Let’s tinker with this parable a little bit. What if that concerned parent was also a physician and had asked to consult with these professionals about a patient?

Would they not have been more attentive? More inquisitive and careful when the symptoms were described?

What if the experienced father in this parable was not only a physician, but an architect, an author, a shepherd, a king? The King of the universe.

What if God is trying to tell to tell us something of great importance but to our ears it sounds too simple? Routine. Obvious.

What if the child described was not a little kid, but an adult- no longer sleeping well, crying at night, frazzled and not herself?

Are we not all God’s children, under his watchful care and concern? Does he not reach out to us and to others in attempts to correct our deviations from the straight and narrow path of eternal health and happiness?

If we use this story as a metaphor for prayer or instruction from His Messengers, God is inviting us to gather to Him, and asking us to treat His communication seriously. Instead, we casually hear what He is saying and believe it is too simple or too obvious for our time and attention. We tune out before we have fully engaged our minds and our spirits to grasp the depth of the problem. We get up and leave even before we’ve expended any real effort to foster real communication and increased understanding.

How many times do we pray and then immediately get up and walk away? How many times do we ask the Lord a question but don’t give Him enough time to respond- or rather enough time for us to hear the response? How many times do we receive an answer that we don’t like or don’t care to understand and so we dismiss it?

How many times do we hear the counsel to go to the temple, to study the scriptures, to really pray, to fast, and so on and yet we engage in these so superficially and mechanically as to completely undermine our faith in their efficacy? Eventually we begin to dismiss them outright as insufficient for our problems and inconsequential in such a complex and challenging world.

A Grove made Sacred

Another story, this one a true story, is of a young teenage boy who was very concerned about the welfare of his soul. There were so many different churches teaching different doctrines that he did not know which was right.

Do we not often feel this way about the problems in our lives?

What followed is referred to as the First Vision, where God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and spoke with him.

What we learn when a prayer is only partially answered

Joseph prayed with the intent to join a church -to act- and he received a marvelous Revelation beyond anything he could have expected or imagined.

And yet his question of how to act was only partially answered. In his vision was still no clear direction regarding what -other than Christ’s teachings- he should pursue. He only knew what he should not pursue. The Lord did not say well this church here is the closest so go ahead and start with that and then I will reveal more later.

Joseph asked “which of all the sects were right” but the the essential question was how do I properly follow Thee? The answer was: keep believing, but don’t join any church. Don’t even work on directly preparing to organize a church.

What we learn from and through Joseph Smith about getting answers to prayers

There are multiple elements of Joseph’s process/experience that we can learn from. Joseph searched the scriptures to answer a sincere question, he pondered deeply. He set aside a place and time to talk to God, having the intent to act on what he learned. Thus, some key lessons about prayer and revelation are:

- Scriptures are the key to revelation and motivation.
- We need to take time to ponder.
- We need to have the right intent.
- We need to ask the right questions.
- we need to trust in what we have received

By asking the right questions with real intent we place ourselves in a great position to receive revelation. Then we are well-prepared to act in faith and persist in the path we are called to walk in.

v3 “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall

We are to read, remember, ponder, ask God in the name of Christ; with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ. This is far more in depth than simply saying, pray and ask God and he’ll tell you if something is true. That is an incomplete truth. If we expect real answers then we need to put in real effort.

Some tips for improving the quality of our prayers

We should find a quiet and reverent place where we are unlikely to be interrupted. We should kneel down. Take some time to review what it is that you want to say. What is it that you want to express gratitude for? What are you going to ask him? This is a step that is easy to dismiss because we have a rough draft already in our mind of what those matters are, or more often, we are just prepared to go through the routine of prayer and don’t feel the need to prepare to do so.

However, if we were to come into the presence of the King of the universe Would we not take at least just a few minutes to compose ourselves spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, etc. to address Him properly? To have our thoughts collected so that we could address him with dignity and clarity and humility?

If God were sitting on His throne in a Holy Temple we would never barge into the room and start talking in a haphazard and routine fashion and then turn around and walk away. He expects more than that. He deserves so much better than that.

We should speak out loud. This is a step that is easy to dismiss or downplay but praying out loud is a means of enhancing the spiritual impact of our prayers in addition to being another way in which we can add clarity and precision to the words we use and the feeling behind them. I for one find my prayers much more effective when I follow this pattern.

Praying out loud also allows for us to take some time to listen during our prayer. Sometimes we think of the listening part of prayer as something we do after we’re done but I think it should be something that occurs throughout our prayer. There is some real utility in pausing throughout our prayer.

Another thing to consider is the times when we get an answer immediately even before we’ve had a chance to articulate a request or our concern. God does know everything and he knows what we need before we ask him so we should not be too surprised when on occasion he saves us the effort and the time and gives us what we need as soon as we kneel down and begin to open our mouth to pray. In those circumstances we should spend less time wondering if it’s correct or if it’s the answer and more time expressing gratitude for His gift.

When we don’t want to pray

If your experience is anything like mine, there are many times when you just don’t feel like praying. The resistant feeling can range from indifference to irritated refusal, but in almost every case this scripture comes to my mind:

2 Nephi 32: 8–9

Finding Joy in Communion with and Laboring for God

President Eyring noted the blessings that can come to all of us when we pray we earnest faith

He then mentions how once when listening to Elder David B. Haight offer a prayer as they knelt together

When we really pray- with purpose, real intent, and cheerful submissiveness we too can smile knowing that God really has heard our prayer and approves of what we have said and what we intend to do. If we really pray in His name, then we are saying what He would want us to, and preparing to also act in His name. And that is something to be happy about.

Elder Eyring again:

In Summary:

In summary we need to:
-intend to act, even if that action is a form of waiting.
-seek to understand with information and resources that God has already provided, particularly the holy scriptures.
-Ask inspired questions. These are the best questions or the essential question.
-Listen. Hear him. Don’t close your prayer and immediately walk away. However, part of hearing includes acting. Revelation often comes while we are in motion.
-act on what we have received, even if it seems unrelated to what we initially set out to understand.
-throughout all of these cyclical steps we need to ponder often and express gratitude.

An invitation to offer something to God

President Ballard concluded his April 2020 talk with an invitation for us to act:

the first step, and potentially the most powerful step we can take in making an offering to the Lord, is to follow the steps outlined in Moroni 10, get on our knees, and meaningfully speak and carefully listen to his call to us.

Testimony

I am a witness to the power of prayer. I know God is real and I know that by speaking with him in the name of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Ghost we can receive instruction, healing, and power to act in His name. I know that as we turn our hearts to Him, rely on Him, and submit to His counsel we will develop knowledge, wisdom, and power to cope with any challenge this world has to offer. I know that with God, nothing is impossible. I am grateful for the mortal examples of powerful prayer such as Joseph Smith, Enos, David, Hannah, Mary, and others. More than anything I am forever and gloriously in debt to my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

God bless us all in our efforts to commune with Him.

Notes

This article is based largely on two talks, which are repeatedly referenced above but cited again here, both from April 2020.

This article is also informed by principles from Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism

Elder Scott’s talks on prayer and personal revelation are outstanding and I highly recommend their serious study and adoption:

October 2009

April 2012

October 1989 reprinted Ensign June 2014

23 DIY privacy and security settings for your Windows

What the early events of the Restoration teach us about prayer

Add a comment

Related posts:

The Era of Wayne

Top 10 Upskilling Platforms

Blockchain Technology In Education