As I began my study of Chapter 6, How Mighty a Thing is Prayer, I remembered the quote from Donald L. Hallstrom used in the last blog, “Our most fundamental doctrine includes the knowledge that we are children of a living God. … This doctrine is so basic, so oft stated, and so instinctively simple that it can seem to be ordinary, when in reality it is among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain.”1 Can’t the same thing be said about prayer? It is so basic, so oft stated and so instinctively simple that it can seem to be ordinary. However, knowing that our Father in Heaven hears and answers our prayers is really among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain. Gordon B. Hinckley teaches, “Never forget who you are. You are in very deed a child of God. He is your Eternal Father. He loves you. You can go to Him in prayer. He has invited you to do so. What a wonderful thing this is. He is the Greatest of All. He is the Creator and Governor of the universe. And yet He will listen to your prayer!”
While physically praying really is quite simple, the impact it can have on us spiritually is anything but! In fact, President Hinckley uses words like wonderful, miraculous, marvelous and mighty. He encourages us to “believe in the power and majesty of prayer.” Those words are far from simple! So how can our prayers become powerful, wonderful, miraculous, marvelous and mighty? I believe how we pray and how we listen for answers can have a tremendous impact.
How we pray can change prayer from ordinary to extraordinary.
“The gift of prayer,” said Bruce D. Porter, “is surely among the greatest of gifts given by our Father in Heaven to His children on earth. Prayer is the ordained means by which men and women, and even little children, come to know God. It is our channel of communication with heaven. It is a priceless privilege. … Yet all too easily our prayers can become repetitive and perfunctory, a mere check on a checklist of duties and tasks in a given day. … But prayer was never meant to be ordinary: it can be among the most exalted of privileges we enjoy in this mortal sphere.”2
President Hinckley warned, “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.”
Joseph B. Wirthlin cautioned about letting our prayers become routine or mechanical. He taught, “Prayers that do not demand much of your thought will hardly merit much attention from our Heavenly Father.”3
When our prayers are sincere and heartfelt, they bring us into what President Hinckley calls a “partnership with God.” Elder Porter said, “True prayer is heartfelt: the words convey our deeply felt desires and are coupled with a commitment to act on the divine guidance we receive. … Heartfelt prayer comes from the depths of the soul. … When we pray from the heart, we are seeking to draw nearer to our Father in Heaven, to commune with Him in a personal and intimate manner. … We do not simply talk at God; rather, we talk with Him. This does not imply a face-to-face conversation as Moses experienced, but it does suggest communing with God by listening to the still, small voice of the Spirit. It means allowing time both during a prayer and after a prayer to hear spiritual promptings. … Heartfelt prayer … entails coming to know God. It means seeking understanding of divine truths, seeking to better understand the purposes of one’s life and how to best please God; it means talking with the Lord about things that matter most.”2
As we come to know God, we will more easily recognize how Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Some of the most profound answers I have received to my prayers have come while I have been reading the scriptures. Robert D. Hales teaches, “When we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures. … If you have not heard His voice speaking to you lately, return with new eyes and new ears to the scriptures.”4
Henry B. Eyring reminds us, “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. We may not cease to pray, but our prayers will become more repetitive, more mechanical, lacking real intent. Our hearts cannot be drawn out to a God we do not know, and the scriptures and the words of living prophets help us know Him.”5
Another way Heavenly Father answers our prayers is by speaking peace to our soul. Ezra Taft Benson taught, “It is soul-satisfying to know that God is mindful of us and ready to respond when we place our trust in Him and do that which is right. There is no place for fear among men and women who place their trust in the Almighty, who do not hesitate to humble themselves in seeking divine guidance through prayer. Though persecutions arise, though reverses come, in prayer we can find reassurance, for God will speak peace to the soul. That peace, that spirit of serenity, is life’s greatest blessing.”6
As we come to know God, we will trust Him and trust in Him.
David O. McKay said, “I have cherished from childhood the truth that God is a personal being, and is, indeed, our Father whom we can approach in prayer and receive answers thereto. I cherish as one of the dearest experiences of life the knowledge that God hears the prayer of faith. It is true that the answers to our prayers may not always come as direct and at the time, nor in the manner, we anticipate; but they do come, and at a time and in a manner best for the interests of him who offers the supplication.”7
Virginia Pearce reiterates, “Prayer works. It does indeed call down the powers of heaven. It reconciles our will with the will of the Father. … We may not be granted that which we desire, but we end up grateful with all of our hearts for that which the Lord gives us.”8
What an incredibly valuable lesson we learn from our Savior in Gethsemane. With the undaunting responsibility He was about to undertake, He went to His Father in prayer seeking relief. “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.” How profound were the words that followed, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”9 Aligning our will to the will of the Father is imperative. Sometimes answers to our prayers are clear and unmistakable. Sometimes we may not like the answer we get. And sometimes we can feel as though they are not being answered at all. When that happens, we have to exercise faith in Heavenly Father’s timing and know that “God knows what we do not know and sees what we do not see.”10
There is power and majesty in prayer! It can change our lives! It is available to us not only as individuals but as families as well. President Hinckley reminds us of the great power and miracles that can come through family prayer. He taught, “The family is the basic unit of society. The praying family is the hope of a better society. … I submit that a return to the old pattern of prayer, family prayer in the homes of the people, is one of the basic medications that would check the dread disease that is eroding the character of our society. We could not expect a miracle in a day, but in a generation we would have a miracle. … How tragic the loss for any family that fails to take advantage of this precious and simple practice. … If you sincerely apply family prayer, you will not go away unrewarded.”
President Hinckley lived what he taught. Family prayer was a daily part of life in the Hinckley home. And the rewards are evident in the lessons his children learned from hearing their father pray. His son Richard shared, “I can’t remember a day when we didn’t have family prayer. When it was his turn, Dad prayed very sincerely but never with a theatrical or emotional air. We learned much about the depth of his faith by listening to him pray. He addressed God with great reverence, as he would perhaps a wise and revered teacher or mentor, and he referred to the Savior with deep feeling. As a child, I knew they were real persons to him – that he loved and revered them.”
I hope we will follow President Hinckley’s example and make prayer a priority in our lives and in our homes! As we do, we will witness miracles and experience peace promised by a prophet of God.
References:
1. I Am A Child of God – Donald L. Hallstrom
2. Did You Think to Pray? – Bruce D. Porter
3. Improving Our Prayers – Joseph B. Wirthlin
4. Holy Scriptures: The Power of God Unto Our Salvation – Robert D. Hales
5. Prayer – Henry B. Eyring
6. Prayer – Ezra Taft Benson
7. The Power of Prayer – David O. McKay
8. Prayer: A Small and Simple Thing – Virginia Pearce
9. Luke 22:42
10. The Opening and Closing of Doors – Howard W. Hunter