REL A 250 3/17/2017 - Prayer

This week I was studying from the Book of Mormon in one of my favorite chapters, Helaman 10. In this chapter the prophet Nephi is discouraged because of the wickedness of the Nephites, but a voice came to him and said,

“Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.” (Helaman 10:4-5; italics and bolding added).

This chapter meant a lot to me as a missionary because I felt that I could often relate to and look up to Nephi’s example. There were times that I felt overwhelmed by the difficulty of the work, but at the same time I felt encouraged by Nephi’s example to always seek to do the Lord’s will.

From these verses we can learn a lot about prayer and how we should pray. Nephi always sought to do the Lord’s will and as a result the Lord promised him all that he would pray for because he would never pray for anything that was contrary the Lord’s will.

In the “Guide to the Scriptures: Prayer” it says, “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that we must ask for in order to obtain.”

I believe that if we wish to be most effective in our prayers we should always seek to pray for the things the Lord wants to happen (and not necessarily what we want to happen). In doing so we can obtain the promise of having “all things done according to [our prayers]”, because they are align with God’s will.