Yesterday, while my roommates and I sat in the MARB for sacrament meeting, our bishop stood up at the podium and announced who will be speaking to us. I didn’t know much about the first speaker other than she’d moved into the ward just this last January and Whitney, Shelly and I walked behind her on our way to church that very morning. Come to find her name is Nichole and she is a spectacular speaker in church. While she would appear to be quite shy, her testimony rings loud and clear and her witty remarks intertwined with sincere Gospel truth combined for a talk that became yet another tender mercy directly to me from the Lord. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a sound believer in tender mercies. I believe that the Lord is with us through each step we take on our journeys and He indeed sends little blessings and reminders of His infinite love He has for each and every one of His children.
Nichole talked today on one of the most basic principles known to every religion: prayer. I’ll be honest here – in most cases, I probably would have zoned out a bit as it’s such a common subject. However I was captivated by her words; more so how much she believed the words in which she spoke.
Under “prayer” in the bible dictionary it reads, “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 are made conditional on our asking for them.” This passage is something I base much of my prayers on. When Nichole quoted it in her talk, I perked up immensely. She began to list reasons why we may or may not pray. Her second point stood out most to me and is what I wish to talk about for the rest of my little blurb.
She discussed how our independence can either lead us to or lead us from our knees. Nichole expressed how our mortal independence is God given. We are direct sons and daughters from the most powerful deity. Because we have our agency, we want the independence to choose for ourselves and choose to be faithful; our spiritual bodies crave to do good and yearn to demonstrate our God-given qualities. This independence can either bring us to or push us from coming to the Lord. It can bring us to the Lord when we acknowledge that our independence comes from God the Father and when we display meekness, not to be confused with weakness, we are more prone to turn to who gave us our independence directly. It can push us from the Lord when we confuse spiritual independence to choose right with absolute independence from anyone, including the Lord. It is no mystery that given the choice, I’d rather tackle personal challenges on my own than with a crowd. While it’s an ongoing lesson to be learned, I’ve had to accept that I’m not going to get through every problem without help; and usually the company that comes with the “help” is much more comforting than when I’m by myself. As Nichole explained these differences in independence, I related to most of what she said. I’ve been on both sides of the fence on this one. I’ll submit that the words from her talk humbled my sometimes very puffed up heart. We were reminded of how much we are loved not only my Heavenly Father, but by His son Jesus Christ. As we talk to our earthly parents, it’s infinitely as important to daily talk with our spiritual ones.
I’m taking two church history classes this semester. As I’ve listened and read to so many different stories of early pioneer saints and their legacy of faith they left behind, I’m awed by the immeasurable love they demonstrated every day. One way in which they did this was persistently having a prayer in their heart and speaking prayers from their lips. From that, I’ve been trying to “pour my heart out to the Lord”. While I sometimes rationalize on late nights when I’m tired and rather jump in bed that He already knows what I want/need, what I’m thankful for, what I feel bad for, etc., I’m reminded of my passage in the bible dictionary. He must know what we desire if He’s already willing to give them to us, but are provisional until we merely ask for them.
I have a testimony of prayer. It’s one of those things that I came to earth with. I love to talk and express my feelings and as I get older, talking to my Heavenly Father through prayer rejuvenates my mind and soul. As it’s been said, I am a daughter of God; we are all children of God. He loves us all. He listens to our prayers. My cute 5 year old cousin (or what she would think, niece) Maddy gives some of the most honest, sincere prayers I’ve ever heard. After scripture study, we all gather around the bed when Maddy will list everyone in her family and how much she loves them and what a good girl she is and how she’ll do ANYTHING for Jesus. I can only imagine the joy our Heavenly Father feels when He listens to her simple little prayers that our so filled with sincerity. Her prayers are just as important as the ones her parents offer, I offer and some Joe-Smoo in Brazil offers. He listens to them all. He loves them all. He knows them all.
Thank you, Nichole, for your talk on prayer. While most we’ve all heard before, the message was loud and clear and at least for me, well needed.
I love all of you! My prayers are with you.
Loves!
