Mormon Musings

You don't pray to tell God what you want or what you need.  You pray to find out what God wants for you.  Big difference. That will change the way you pray forever.  David A Bednar

Preach short sermons, make short prayers, and deliver your sermons with a prayerful heart. Joseph Smith

  That simple suggestion in   Come, Follow Me   to think about my blessings brought a sweet spirit and some unexpected spiritual insights. As I continued reading about Alma and his ministry in Ammonihah, I discovered that Alma provides a good example of what it means to ask, seek, and knock. We read that “Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people.” That prayer, however, was not answered the way he hoped, and Alma was cast out of the city. “Weighed down with sorrow,” Alma was about to give up, when an angel delivered this message: “Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice.” The angel then told him to return to Ammonihah and try again, and Alma “returned speedily.” 8 What do we learn from Alma about asking, seeking, and knocking? We learn that prayer requires spiritual labor, and it does not always lead to the outcome we hope for. But when we feel dis

When we pray, we are not conveying any information to God that he does not already have.  Nor, when we confess our sins before Him, is it news to Him that we have misbehaved.  More than we realize, being honest with God in our prayers helps us be more honest with ourselves. Elder Neal A. Maxwell

  Prayer Henry B. Eyring Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles With … faith, we will be able to pray for what we want and appreciate whatever we get. Only with that faith will we pray with the diligence God requires. The world seems to be in commotion. There are wars and rumors of wars. The economies of whole continents are faltering. Crops are failing from lack of rain in places all over the earth. And the people in peril have flooded heaven with prayers. In public and in private, they are petitioning God for help, for comfort, and for direction. You have probably noticed, as I have in recent days, that prayers have not only become more numerous but more heartfelt. I often am seated on the stand in a meeting near the person who has been asked to pray. I have listened recently with wonder. The words spoken are clearly inspired by God, both eloquent and wise. And the tone is that of a loving child seeking help, not as we might from an earthly parent but from an all-powerful Heavenly Fath

“Petitioning in prayer has taught me, again and again, that the vault of heaven with all its blessings is to be opened only by a combination lock.  One tumbler falls when there is faith, a second when there is personal righteousness; the third and final tumbler falls only when what is sought is, in God’s judgment—not ours—right for us.  Sometimes we pound on the fault door for something we want very much and wonder why the door does not open.  We would be very spoiled children if that fault door opened any more easily than it does.  I can tell, looking back, that God truly loves me by inventorying the petitions He has refused to grant me.  Our rejected petitions tell us much about ourselves but also much about our flawless Father.”  Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Insights”, New Era, April 1978

“Answers to prayer come in a quiet way.  The scriptures describe that voice of inspiration as a still, small voice...I have come to I know that inspiration comes more as a feeling than a sound...Put difficult questions in the back of your minds and go about your lives.  Ponder and pray quietly and persistently about them.  The answer may not come as a lightning bolt.  It may come as a little inspiration here and a little there, ‘line upon line, precept upon precept’ (D&C 98:12).  Some answers will come from reading the scriptures, some from hearing speakers.  And, occasionally, when it is important, some will come by very direct and powerful inspiration.  The promptings will be clear and unmistakable.”  President Boyd K. Packer, G.C. October 1979)

"It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire. If there lives a man who has never really prayed, that man is a being apart from the order of the divine in human nature, a stranger in the family of God’s children. Prayer is for the uplifting of the suppliant. God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God. So did Christ instruct: “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” James E. Talmage, Jesus The Christ

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.” “We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us.” “A concentrated mind and a sitting body make for better prayer than a kneeling body and a mind half asleep.” “For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted.” “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”

Following baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there comes a second ordinance: “Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Articles of Faith 1:4). That sweet, quiet voice of inspiration comes more as a feeling than it does as a sound. Pure intelligence can be spoken into the mind. The Holy Ghost communicates with our spirits through the mind more than through the physical senses. This guidance comes as thoughts, as feelings through promptings and impressions. We may feel the words of spiritual communication more than hear them and see with spiritual rather than with mortal eyes. Prayer and Promptings Elder Boyd K. Packer, October 2009 General Conference https://www.lds.org/study/ general-conference/2009/10/ prayer-and-promptings?id=p13- p14#p13

"The reason our Heavenly Father asks us to pray cannot be that we are able to tell Him something He does not already know. Rather, the reason He asks us to pray is that the process of learning to communicate effectively with Him will shape and change our lives as much as we are changed by learning to communicate as children." —David E. Sorensen, "Prayer", Ensign, May 1993

"There will be noise and people around you most of your waking day. God hears your silent prayers, but you may have to learn to shut out the distractions because the moment you need the connection with God may not come in quiet times." —Henry B. Eyring, " Priesthood and Personal Prayer "

If we expect to receive, we must ask, seek, and knock. In his search for truth, Joseph Smith read from the scriptures, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” In answer to his prayer of faith, the heavens were opened. God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, descended in glory and spoke to Joseph Smith, ushering in the dispensation of the fulness of times. For us, miraculous healing, powerful protection, divine knowledge, liberating forgiveness, and precious peace are among the answers that come when we offer up a “soul’s sincere desire” in faith. Carol F. McConkie, October 2016 General Conference

He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.

"Lift up your soul in prayer and explain to your Heavenly Father what you are feeling. Acknowledge your shortcomings. Pour out your heart and express your gratitude. Let Him know of the trials you are facing. Plead with Him in Christ's name for strength and support. Ask that your ears may be opened, that you may hear His voice." —Dieter F. Uchtdorf, " The Hope of God's Light "

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and might things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3

Isn’t it marvelous, brothers and sisters, that God,  who knows everything,  still spends time listening to our prayers? Compared to that cosmic fact, what does the world really have to offer us? One round of applause, one fleeting moment of adulation, or an approving glance from a phantom Caesar? Elder Neal A. Maxwell, October 2000 General Conference http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/the-tugs-and-pulls-of-the-world?lang=eng

The scriptures are our Father in Heaven’s letters; only He knows more than I did as a father what you and I would need.  There are times in our lives when we need to open the letter and communicate with our Father in Heaven, and understand what He is like and His concern for us.  I would like to share this morning, with you, four letters from my Father in Heaven that have been very important to me—that I hope will be indicative of the power that the scriptures can be for us as we face different trials and challenges of our lives.  The first letter is called "The Fourth Watch." That letter comes from the sixth chapter of Mark.  The Savior has fed the five thousand that day, and in the late afternoon, early evening, He is sending his apostles down into the ship. He will dismiss the multitude. He wishes to pray that evening, and then He will meet the apostles a little later on the shore and they are to pick Him up.  In late afternoon, early evening, the apostles get on the sh

Amazing talk about the nature of God, answers to prayer, adversity, etc.: https://devotionalarchive.byuh.edu/node/332.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR2xdzkEIQk&feature=youtu.be Bread or Stones: Understanding the God We Pray to Devotional Talk Given at  Brigham Young University-Hawaii  March 31, 2009 S. Michael Wilcox  Religion Instructor & Author CES Institute of Religion A number of years ago when my daughter was about your age, she was just out of high school, she went to one semester at BYU and then she got an opportunity to go to the Soviet Union (former Soviet Union) and teach English in Russia. Now this was before e-mail and cell phones, and communications between the United States and the Soviet Union were not going to be really good. She was eighteen; we were a little bit worried that there might be moments or times when she would need to talk with a parent, and not be able to because of communication difficulties.  So I decided that I would write her a series