Prayer

POSITION STATEMENT

I have a sure knowledge of the power of prayer. I have received answers to prayers through impressions and feelings. I have felt the comfort and knowledge of Heavenly Father’s witness to me that He is listening and is there. I know as we express our gratitude and acknowledge His hand in our lives we are blessed with further understanding.

Communication with God is a gift and blessing that allows us to receive guidance and direction in our lives. As we pray in faith He will answer our prayers, He will teach us what is true and He will provide comfort and peace in our lives. We are not alone, and we can receive the inspiration and direction we need through the power of prayer and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We should not ignore this great gift or worry that we are not worthy. The Lord is always there to hear our cries of repentance and desire to come unto Him.

QUOTES

1.

"Perhaps there has never been a time when we had greater need to pray and to teach our family members to pray. Prayer is a defense against temptation. It is through earnest and heartfelt prayer that we can receive the needed blessings and the support required to make our way in this sometimes difficult and challenging journey we call mortality."

President Thomas S. Monson, Three Goals to Guide You, General Relief Society Meeting, September 2007

2.

"Within a day or two my prayer was answered. The hardest trial of my life surprised and humbled me. It provided me a twofold lesson. First, I had clear proof that God heard and answered my prayer of faith. But second, I began a tutorial that still goes on to learn about why I felt with such confidence that night that a great blessing could come from adversity to more than compensate for any cost."

President Henry B. Eyring, Mountains to Climb, General Conference, April 2012

3.

“Like most things of great worth, knowledge which is of eternal value comes only through personal prayer and pondering. These, joined with fasting and scripture study, will invite impressions and revelations and the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This provides us with instruction from on high as we learn precept upon precept."

President Boyd K. Packer, “The Witness”, General Conference, April 2014

4.

"That simple practice is: In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible."

Elder M Russell Ballard, “Be Anxiously Engaged”, General Conference, October 2012

5

“Prayer is a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul. Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father. Actually, because He knows how desperately we need His guidance, He commands, “Thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.” D & C 19:28

Elder Richard G. Scott, “Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer, General Conference, April 2007

6.

“The Lord can hear a simple prayer, offered in faith, in half a dozen words, and he will recognize fasting that may not continue more than twenty-four hours, just as readily and as effectually as He will answer a prayer of a thousand words and fasting for a month. … The Lord will accept that which is enough, with a good deal more pleasure and satisfaction than that which is too much and unnecessary.” (Joseph F. Smith)

Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Lessons from The Lord’s Prayers”, General Conference, April 2009

7.

“Petitioning Heavenly Father for the blessings we desire in our personal lives is good and proper. However, praying earnestly for others, both those whom we love and those who despitefully use us, is also an important element of meaningful prayer. 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.”

Elder David A. Bednar, “Pray Always”, General Conference, October 2008

8.

“All through my life the counsel to depend on prayer has been prized above almost any other advice I have ever received. It has become an integral part of me, an anchor, a constant source of strength and the basis of my knowledge of things divine.

“Our Heavenly Father is always near. … Thank God we can reach out and tap that unseen power, without which no man can do his best.” (Message delivered to temple workers and Church employees by President Benson, at São Paulo, Brazil, 20 November 1982.)

President Thomas S. Monson, “The Power of Prayer”, General Conference, April 1991

9.

“One of the adversary’s sharpest tools is to convince us that we are no longer worthy to pray. No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray.”

President Boyd K. Packer, “Prayer and Promptings”, General Conference, October 2009

10.

“Learn to pray. Pray often. Pray in your mind, in your heart. Pray on your knees. Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil. And I have learned to conclude all my prayers with “Thy will be done”

President Boyd K. Packer, “Prayer and Promptings”, General Conference, October 2009

11.

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.

President Gordon B. Hinkley

12

 "I know of no single practice that will have a [greater] effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord, you thank him for one another, in the presence of one another, and then together invoke his blessings upon your lives, your home, your loved ones, and your dreams . . . God will then be your partner, and your daily conversations with him will bring peace into your hearts and a joy into your lives that can come from no other source. Your companionship will sweeten through the years; your love will strengthen. Your appreciation for one another will grow . . . The destroying angel of domestic bitterness will pass you by and you will know peace and love throughout your lives" 

President Gordon B. Hinkley