Pray always

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2008 Conference.

There are several memorable talks in this session. Elder Wirthlin's "Come what may and love it," which everyone loved and still quotes all the time (me included), Elder Holland's "The Ministry of Angels" [it's SO good; I'm not going to write about it but it's definitely worth a re-read!] Elder Christoffersen's talk about building Zion, and Elder Bednar's "Pray Always." As usual, these talks seem to have only gotten better over time! 

I'd forgotten that this is the conference where Elder Bednar talked about our morning prayers being a form of "spiritually creating" our days before we actually "physically create" the experiences of those days. I feel like that's a concept I just heard recently and have kept intending to think more about and implement. Pretty embarrassing to realize I've been intending to do so for over 17 years now🤦🏼‍♀️. Maybe I also heard about it from someone else? Anyway, here is the relevant passage:

We learn…that the spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation. In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.…

Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always.” Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children.

I love that idea of our prayers all being linked and building on each other. Someone in Relief Society the other day mentioned that she "opens" her prayers in the morning and, although of course she has to move on with her day and take care of other things, she doesn't say "amen" until the night prayer, so that anytime she has a free moment she sort of just takes up where she left off. I always worry that my prayer somehow won't be as good until I've said "in the name of Jesus Christ," but I still like the idea of it all really being one day-long prayer. I also heard someone else say once that she makes sure to say "in the name of Jesus Christ" at the beginning of her prayers…so if she gets interrupted or has to cut off abruptly, she has already made clear in whose name she is praying. Interesting ideas, both of them, but most of all I just like the concept that our hearts and minds can continually be turning back to prayer all day long, and as Elder Bednar says, even midday and in crucial moments, we

discern heavenly help and strength and humbly recognize answers to our prayer. Even in that moment of recognition, we offer a silent prayer of gratitude.

I also really liked this insight:

Just as expressing gratitude more often in our prayers enlarges the conduit for revelation, so praying for others with all of the energy of our souls increases our capacity to hear and to heed the voice of the Lord.

Though I know I have improved significantly in the past several years, I want to continue to improve the power and effectiveness of my prayers, and this talk seems like a great place to start. I will try not to take seventeen more years to get working on it!

Other posts in this series:

What General Conference Teaches Us—by Jan

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Confidence that He is near

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2007 Conference.

I remember some of the talks from this conference pretty clearly, but even more than that I remember some of the circumstances of where I heard them and what I was thinking about. It was a hard time for me and I remember aching to feel what comfort I could from the words of the prophets.

Elder Scott's talk on prayer isn't actually one I remember, but I was happy to re-read it because it's so good! Every time I read his talks I marvel at his experience with matters of prayer and revelation, and the clear ways he finds to share what he's learned. I loved this insight:

Should you ever feel distanced from our Father, it could be for many reasons. Whatever the cause, as you continue to plead for help, He will guide you to do that which will restore your confidence that He is near.

I had never looked at repentance as this, exactly: something that God wants us to do so that we can feel more confident He is near. It's interesting to think about that. He is near, always; we know that. He is aware of us and loves us. But our confidence about that may ebb and flow based on what we are doing—how much we are thinking of Him, how much we are receiving His love, how much we are sharing His love. So, when we pray, God can guide us to improve in all of those things and thus guide us to a greater feeling of closeness with Him. I love thinking of that as His motivation!

I also related to Elder Scott's description of how prayer can bring inexplicable peace:

…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.

I have had almost identical experiences where all I can do is marvel at the miraculous peace God can send. That peace doesn't last forever, and soon enough I must plead for it again, but it is real and astonishing and I can't think of anything that can really compare to it. I need to remember, when I'm in that preliminary state of "seeing no path" out of fear or worry, that I don't need to understand how peace will come—I can just trust that it will come when the time is right and if I pray for it!

Other posts in this series:

More than a few good things—by Rozy

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The frequency of our appeals

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the October 2001 Conference. 

I think I pray, in general, a lot more than I used to. I suppose it's partly because I just need strength so much more often—and partly because my idea of what a prayer is and how to do it has expanded greatly over the years. I snatch prayers in practically every available little moment, and I seek those moments—in the car, while hanging out clothes, while waiting for a meeting to start. I've become really good at finding those "creative" prayer times because the "usual" prayer times (when I get out of and get into bed!) are often busy or hurried or half-asleep. My actual on-my-knees prayers are often my worst ones!

I thought about this as I read Elder L. Tom Perry's counsel: 

Throughout my mission, I prayed with my companion each morning as we began a new day. The process was repeated each night before we retired. We offered a prayer before we studied, a prayer as we left our apartment to go out tracting, and, of course, special prayers when special guidance was needed to direct our missionary work. The frequency of our appeals to our Father in Heaven gave us strength and courage to press forward in the work to which we had been called. Answers would come, sometimes in astonishingly direct and positive ways. The guidance of the Holy Spirit seemed to be magnified the more times we appealed to the Lord for direction on a given day.

As I look back on my life following my mission, I realize that there were periods when I was able to maintain the same closeness to the Lord that I experienced in the mission field. There were also periods when the world seemed to creep in and I was less consistent and faithful with my prayers.

Wouldn’t this be a good time for a little self-evaluation to determine if we still have the same relationship with our Father in Heaven that we enjoyed in the mission field? If the world has diverted us from the practice of prayer, we then have lost a great spiritual power. Maybe it is time that we rekindle our missionary spirit through more frequent, consistent, and mighty prayer.

I can certainly work on the "consistent and mighty prayer" part, but it did comfort me to hear him talk about how even the simple frequency of prayer was a tool to unlock strength and courage. I have found it to be true that even a short, snatched prayer on the ten minute-drive between the high school and home can change my focus and bring me peace to go on. And a prayer in the shower or on a walk around the block to track down Ziggy (haha), while it doesn't seem powerful the way a prayer in the temple does—is at least good at reminding me who I am and what my purpose is. So it's reassuring to hear that enough of these little squeezed-in, interrupted prayers really can—together—significantly magnify the Holy Spirit and its power to improve my life!

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