Friday, December 7, 2012

Prayer

I want to work on improving my prayers.  I was thinking of Jared and the brother of Jared.  His family had been promised a choice land, free from bondage and captivity.  All they had to do was serve God.  They came to a place by the sea and stayed there for 4 years.  Then the Lord came and talked to the brother of Jared for three hours and chewed him out for not remembering to "Call upon the name of the Lord." 

I have been kind of wondering about that.  Somehow I keep thinking that the brother of Jared was praying but not with the feeling that he had been praying with when his family thought their language was going to be confounded.  I was thinking about my own prayers.  When there is something that I have a deep feeling about I notice my prayers are deeper, more heart felt.  Then other times my prayers are superficial.  I'm just saying words with no feeling.  I am wondering if the brother of Jared forgetting to use feeling?

Elder Richard G. Scott says, "A key to improved prayer is to learn to ask the right questions.  Consider changing from asking for the things you want to honestly seeking what He wants for you.  Then as you learn His will, pray that you will be led to have the strength to fulfill it."  ("Using the Supernal gift of Prayer," Ensign, May 2007.)

Now I am thinking I need to honestly learn what the Lord wants for me instead of what I want for me.  D&C 19:23 says:  "Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me."  I need to ask in EVERY prayer what the Lord wants for me.