1) How has the routine of daily prayer been a blessing to you?
2) How has the routine of daily prayer inhibited your Spiritual growth?
These two questions may seem contradictory, but it helps you think about your prayers and how you go about communicating with your Father in Heaven. Prayer depends on us. We should ask oursleves how we are saying our prayers.
President Gordon B. Hinckley says, "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, comtemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another." Comments in the class also suggest that we have constant, heartfelt prayer; as we plead to our Father in Heaven we also need to have faith that our Heavenly Father is listening.
There is a sometimes overlooked connection between our prayers and scripture study. Sis. Pack asked us, "How can the Book of Mormon help us have a better communion with God?" We should be having an intimate conversation with our Father in Heaven, and meaningful scripture study can help us do that. As we study the scriptures it opens up to us a conduit to our own personal revelation. We may read something in scripture that opens our mind, or we may have a specific thought as we read that answers a question in our mind.
When we receive answers to our prayers, what kind of feelings do we experience at that moment? We should feel gratitude that our prayers were heard and feel that Heavenly Father knows me and knows my need. Think of the characteristics of your prayers when it was offered. Our prayers should be sincere, persistent, and full of faith.
Elder Richard G. Scott shares an experience he had with prayer: "Once I had an experience that caused me immense anxiety. It had nothing to do with disobedience or trangression but with a vitally important human relationship. For some time I poured my heart out in urgent prayer. Yet try as I might, I could find no solution, no settling of the powerful stirring within me. I pled for help from that Eternal Father I have come to know and trust completely. I could see no path that would provide the calm that is my blessing generally to enjoy. Sleep overcame me. When I awoke, I was totally at peace. Again I knelt in solemn prayer and asked, "Lord, how is it done?" In my heart, I knew the answer was His love and His concern for me. Such is the power of sincere prayer to a compassionate Father."
As a class we read extensively in 1 Nephi chapters 17 and 18, when Nephi and his family had reached the land Bountiful and Nephi was commanded to build a ship. Nephi showed much faith and submitted his will to the Father when he did not hesitate about the enormity of building a ship. He even asked the Lord where he could find the material to make tools in order to build a ship. He had pure faith in his Father in Heaven that a way would be provided. If we submit our will to the Father, our "workmanship will be exceedingly fine" just as Nephi's was (1 Nephi 18:4).
Sis. Pack shared with us a Prayer Scale from Preach My Gospel that can be found at this link:
Study this scale and privately evaluate your prayers. In your journal write answers to questions like these: Where would you place yourself on this scale? Where would you like to be on this scale? How are you going to change?
"It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and poplated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer." Elder Richard G. Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment