PART I
Our Offerings
Often going to pray we feel we don’t have anything to pray for or are stumped as to what we should pray about. I think this is because we often think of prayer needing to be formal or “in proper order”, and while there is certainly a place for it we must also consider what praying “style” will keep us continuous in communicating with our heavenly parents. We must consider which form of prayer is best for our current circumstances. We must consider the intention for the prayer, “what am I praying for?” THEN we will know which form of prayer to use.
President Jeffery R. Holland in his talk from April 2024 entitled, Motion's of a Hidden Fire, said, “When we don’t know how or exactly for what to pray, we should begin, and continue, until the Holy Spirit guides us into the prayer we should be offering”. This form of prayer is a reflective prayer. It’s the kind of prayer that you open up to just sit with God in His presence. Sitting with God opens up the pathways to Heaven for us and give us the hope and encouragement we are needing. President Jeffery R. Holland, just before this quote shared, also offered a list of other ways we can pray, “My beloved friends,” He says, “our prayers are our sweetest hour, our most “sincere desire,” our simplest, purest form of worship. We should pray individually, in our families, and in congregations of all sizes. We are to employ prayer as a shield against temptation, and if there be any time we feel not to pray, we can be sure that hesitancy does not come from God, who yearns to communicate with His children at any and all times. Indeed, some efforts to keep us from praying come directly from the adversary.” Later President Holland reflected on the devotion to prayer Christ had and even pointed out the different reasons why and how Jesus prayed; “He too, with us, wanted to “seek [the Father’s] face, believe his word, and trust his grace.” Time after time, He retreated from society to be alone before piercing heaven with His prayers. At other times, He prayed in the company of a few companions. Then He would seek heaven on behalf of multitudes who would cover a hillside. Sometimes prayer glorified His clothing. Sometimes it glorified His countenance. Sometimes He stood to pray, sometimes He knelt, and at least once He fell on His face in prayer.”
To pray in Private is ,as mentioned in Matthew 14:23, “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening came, he was not alone.” It is a sacred time between God and ourselves where we seek direct guidance from Him, express our gratitude towards Him, and pour out our whole hearts unto Him.
President Holland shares a quote from G.K. Chesterton which said “that thanks are the highest form of thought; and…gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” I will go into further depth on gratitude in my next blog post.
A private prayer encompasses many other forms of praying including the prayers we offer up for forgiveness or repentance. Or the continuous prayer which is always in our hearts and thoughts; our souls sincerest desires. Or the studious prayer where we seek God’s council. President Holland says more about these kind of prayers from his talk, “If we “ask not amiss” there are no limits to when, where, or about what we should pray. According to the revelations, we are to “pray always.” We are to pray, Amulek said, for “those who are around you,” with the belief that the “fervent prayer of a righteous [people] availeth much.” Our prayers ought to be vocal when we have the privacy to offer them. If that is not practical, they should be carried as silent utterances in our heart. We sing that prayers are “motion[s] of a hidden fire,” always to be offered, according to the Savior Himself, to God the Eternal Father in the name of His Only Begotten Son.”
As we pray in earnest and fervently we are showing great warmth, intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm, admiration, and our serious state of mind. We take the time to plead to the Father, seek His guidance, cry out for the injustice, and even do as Christ did and ‘Fall on our face's in prayer’when our own strength is not enough.
Meditation is also another form of private prayer even when done in groups or when guided. Meditation isn’t the absence of thought but rather a controlled environment for thought. Thoughts are vital to the meditation practice. Your mind needn’t always be clear of evasive thoughts but rather sorted through. Thoughts are God's way of telling you what is important or what needs to be focused on, however, most times the most important is hidden behind a bunch of junk thoughts or distractions. Your job during meditation, or any other form of prayer, is to sort through these thoughts like mail. Many you’ll observe and send along on its way but every now and then you’ll open one that will give you the distinct impression that this is a deep and concerning thought that needs attention right away.
Meditation isn’t just sitting there mindlessly, it’s a deeply rooted and uncomfortable work. It’s an access to the parts of your mind and memories that you often avoid or try to hide because it isn’t the time, you don’t feel you have adequate space to express, it’s embarrassing, or it’s hurtful. You may avoid these thoughts because you’re not sure what you’d do with them anyway. You’re not sure how to “fix it”. Allowing yourself to meditate is taking the mindful action to allow yourself that time, telling your spirit that you are safe to express, allowing you to feel it all, letting God work within you and within this space you will find a sense of comfort ,beyond the thoughts, and might even find your next step.
In contrast to our private prayers, our public prayers are opportunities to pray for one another in small groups or large congregations. It’s an opportunity to open or close meetings or to simply praise God and Jesus Christ with the baring of our testimonies. A public prayer is one we utter out in the open to join together as one under God. A few sub categories to public prayers that are found throughout many religions are the prayers that are written, repetitious, or sung in hymns or psalms.
Other subcategories to the public prayers are the ones that are used to perform ceremonies, blessings, and to offer protection. These public prayers are in adherence to priesthood power to enhance well being. It’s these kind of prayers offered that show in our countenances like that mentioned by President Holland about Jesus in scriptures like Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:3, Luke 9:29, and 3 Nephi 19:25.
And finally amidst the prayers in public we have the formal prayers and proper order of prayer. These are the prayers we are taught how to pray through Christ in Luke chapter eleven verses 1-4, through others, and in the temple. These are the most commonly thought of prayers that we offer. These are the prayers that cover all the other aforementioned prayers. These are the prayers that we offer when we want to know more, grow to become more like Christ, or to show our devotion and love to God and His other children as Susan H. Porter mentions in her talk from April 2024 entitled, “Pray, He is there”.
Answers to prayer can take a long time. Lifetimes even. We don’t always get to see the effects or answers of our prayers. Jeffery R. Holland in his talk, Motion's of a Hidden Fire, says “God Hears and answers every prayer we offer and responds to each of them according to the path He has outlined.” When we have prayed but feel like God hasn’t answered us, Susan H. Porter says, “Don’t give up! Heavenly Father will show you what you can do”. Because we can only control what we do and the choices we make, it is important for us to also have patience and gratitude for the outcomes of our prayers. The answers may not be at the time that we want them, the inspiration we receive may not make sense to us, or the answer might not be what we were wanting but the answer always comes and in the meantime he still gives us hope and inspiration for what we can do now as we wait such as the example that Sister Porter gives where she was inspired to “Be an example of the gospel of Jesus Christ”. Sister Porter says that in these situations, “Often the best question to ask Heavenly Father is not why but what”.
PART II
Our Reception
We are essentially made up of three distinct things: our minds, our bodies, and our spirit. When all three align we can feel peace and clarity but oftentimes one gets overused or underused. We tend to go to our minds first as that is how we identify ourselves. We are who we think that we are and become how we think we could become. Our thoughts, emotions, interpretations, and intellect all go through our minds. We use our own past experiences to project our futures and seek understanding in research and study. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the mind and forget that it’s actually our spirit that comes first.
The spirit is our gift from God that guides us morally. It dictates what is right and wrong and weighs out what challenges are worth the outcome. It’s usually our initial thought. The prompting that comes through first before the mind has had its time calculating it and backing it up with experience. Our spirit is our unexplainable creativity, where our ideas, hopes, dreams, talents and faith reside. It dictates better ways of living and connects us to others. It operates on intuition, or gut feelings. It points and denotes all things to God, the creator of all things and works with both mind and body to see that divine intervention trumps coincidence. Our spirit is a truth seeker, joy enthusiast, and an advocate for good boundaries and where we can expand or hold fast. The spirit is our soul’s direct connection to God. There is not one or the other.
“Through his spirit,” Susan H. Porter says, “your heart can change, and you can receive strength.” Through this spirit we can find our spiritual gifts, or rather traces of our divine natures that reflect our Heavenly parents. Our spiritual gifts have the ability to draw us closer to God because they call on those parts of ourselves that are closer to God already. My soul knows what my spiritual gifts are but often my mind forgets. Pursuing a life keeping in line with those gifts opens channels of inspiration and spiritual confidence which can also help others to open their own channels. For example, a sister in my ward shared her own gifts when she produced a talk in sacrament meeting the 24th of July 2022, based on Matthew Wickman’s message from BYU speeches entitled, "Thriving Spiritually", which a lot of the second part of this blog post pulls inspiration from. I felt like this talk given through Rebecca’s own inspirations that she followed through with “opened a channel of inspiration” for me. I felt I had my direction again and saw that once I felt that click into place my spiritual confidence began to increase once again.
Our spiritual gifts may not come “naturally” to us, as odd as that may sound. I think it's normal for us to think that if we are gifted with something then we must already have natural tendencies to use that gift but as in Mosiah 3:19 it says "the natural man is an enemy to God." This simply means in this context that while we may be given many gifts from God we may not always know how or when the right to use them is. We may feel rusty or mistake riddled as we try and activate those dormant gifts but as we do we will continue to receive further light and knowledge in where God wants us to use those gifts and how to use them.
Another gift from God we are given is an external helper after we are baptized; the Holy Ghost, an addition to our own spiritual intuition. This is a direct messenger from God who confirms or defers. It is the counselor to our entire entity: the mind, body AND spirit. The Holy Ghost advocates for what is being neglected and guides us on where we can further harmonize not just within ourselves but also to God. The Holy Ghost is our companion, friend, mentor and teacher.
“The gift of the Holy Ghost . . .
Quickens all the intellectual faculties
Increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections;
Adapts natural passions and affections, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use.
Inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature.
Inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity.
Develops beauty of person, form and features.
Tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling.
Confirms inspiration and intuition if aligned with God
Marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.”
In order to be receptive after we have presented our offering of prayers to God we must be open and willing to listen, record, and act even if the confirmation to our prayers wasn’t exactly how we expected it to be.
Listen
When was the first time that you felt God speak to you? What was that experience like?
How do you find peace when life feels overwhelming?
What role has God played in your life?
What verses of scripture help you #HearHim?
How does God communicate with you?
What advice would you give, particularly to young people trying to navigate the modern world, for how they can better #HearHim?
cultivating the companionship of the Holy Ghost even when we weren’t seeking answers to urgent questions?
Have you felt the Spirit even a little as you have sought the Lord in prayer?
Have you felt the Spirit convey to you that God loves you, or that He understands you, or that He has great hopes for you, or that He sorrows with you, or that He rejoices with you, or that He appreciates your gratitude to Him or your kind deed for someone else?
Keep a journal of impressions:
Turn your prayers in to a story that you co-author with God, each entry becoming chapter titled by the prayer type or content. See God through your story.
When they occur
How they occur
How I responded
Does it feel peaceful or lead in the way of peace?
Is this aligning in the direction of the person I want to be?
extraordinary counterintuitive peace
How do I feel more connected to God? How doI see Him in this?
Heed the Promptings
Doing the right things at the right moments
Accomplishing tasks with joy and peace instead of stress
Intentional living
Trust in God - have patience in His timing
Own your choices. Take accountability and repent of the ones that didn’t align with God. Celebrate and rejoice with God over the choices you made with faith. Show gratitude for the His guidance in the choices you were unsure how to make. Susan H. Porter shares a story of praying for her father from when she was in primary to accept the gospel. Of the experience she says, “Heavenly Father does not force anyone to make a choice.” Because of this answers to prayers come in ways that can help us know what choices we can make for ourselves and in time all things will be made right in the sight of the Lord.
XOXO
Megan
