“How many of you, with or without serious transgressions, have
ever prayed all day and into the night? Have you ever wept and
prayed for many hours? How many of you have prayed
for five hours? for one? for thirty minutes? for ten?”
~ President Spencer W. Kimball
How often do you cry unto the Lord in mighty prayer?
How can you make prayer more meaningful?
I love Enos... I love the fact that he was seeking physical nurtrients and while out he ponder on the words of his father (prophet) he was able to full fill his hunger by coming unto the Lord and with a broken heart and contrite spirit believing in Jesus Christ. I love how he speaks and puts his thoughts and experiences to words. So moving and inspiring.
ReplyDeletePrayer has often been a point of weekness for me. I am a person who does not ask for things. Even the other day when talking with my mom, she always said I was never demanding, hardly ever asked for anything. Yet, it doesn't work well for relationships and especially with Heavenly Father. Maybe that is why I have a hard time with prayer. I know I should be asking for what I need, my family's needs (and I do). I feel extremely lacking in my prayers and have tried to develop a habit, especially in the mornings, which has been better once the kids have been sleeping better. I know this has been a big hinderance to my personal growth and learning how to trust. I struggle with getting beyond the day to day stuff that we ask/need for and developing the habit of really communiticating and communing with Heavenly Father. I am much better at reading scriptures and feeling answers that way. Any thoughts?? What has worked for you?
ReplyDeleteI remember a prayer challenge issued by a teacher at BYU when I was 19. It made a big impression on me. We must have been discussing Enos in the class - that much I do not remember - but he asked us to try praying for 20 minutes once a day for a week. This exercise opened my eyes to the possibilities of expressing more than the usual things. I remember glancing at the clock periodically those first few times and thinking, "how do I use this time??" But a wonderful "a-ha" happened during that week and the weeks after, as he also challenged us to listen for answers to those prayers while in our scripture study. I've since been asked to think about expressing prayers of only gratitude, and that has likewise helped me get out of prayer "ruts".
ReplyDeleteThis is one commandment and habit we should probably frequently re-assess. I appreciate your thoughts here: that Elin mentioned the great hunger we should bring to prayer, and that Natalie admitted to the nuts and bolts challenges of having prayer really be a source of inspiration and power. For me, the key usually is an ability to REALLY set aside the world for those minutes - to think "big", beyond my own concerns - and to be able to picture the Father to whom I am speaking. The more real it feels, the more soul-changing it can be.
And that doesn't happen every day. For me.
I think our loving and perfect Father understands those struggles.