THE QUESTION OF PRAYER – CONTINUED

As I have counseled with people and in moments of introspection, I have found that when people have decided to include Heavenly Father in their daily lives, although there are some who just can’t approach an unseen being, the majority who lack confidence in the prayer process are those who have a feeling that their prayers are not answered or they don’t know how to recognize answers if they have been given.

It seems that to one degree or another we all have a vision when we pray of Moses on the Mount approaching a burning bush and that God will speak to us with great force and clarity in response to our every sincere petition. How many messages have we missed because we were looking for a burning bush and therefore missed the simple sweetness of the still small voice?

One of the concepts we often overlook is that it is not God who is passing through mortality in order to learn and progress. As Joseph Smith was counseled in August of 1831, the Lord would not command nor compel in all things lest we become slothful and not wise servants. (Doctrine and Covenants 58:26) I have come to believe that we must do our research in due diligence (study it out in our mind), exhausting our available resources, which will include ongoing prayer, then after the best of our efforts, seek the Lords additions or subtractions. Reality has shown me that as I prayerfully and diligently struggle, keeping my shoulder to the task, I will be receiving line upon line leading to the correct solutions. Many times the final prayer is one of the offering of a grateful heart by one who has had his indebtedness enlarged. How often has the aid of Heavenly Father gone unrecognized while I have taken unneeded tangents because I neglected to see the lines being written one by one as I was struggling and seeking?

One of the biggest roadblocks which we place between ourselves and Heaven sent answers is that we are so in love with our own opinions and conclusions that any response which is being transmitted is muffled by the busyness going on in our own heads. It reminds me of observing political conversations where both parties are so busy formulating their next comment that they shut out the incoming words from the other end of the continuum. Thus when the two combatants separate they are left with the same opinion still. I wonder how much counsel has been lost in space because of the love I have for my own ideas and agenda?

Isaiah saw a day when people’s lives would be so occupied and whose houses would be so closely connected that they would not have time nor space to ponder or have a desire to pray. He saw people filling their lives with music, noise, and strong drink from the moment they woke until they retired at night. Even though while I was Stake and Mission President I thought I was anxiously engaged in a good work, I found that between my career and church responsibilities I was so busy trying to decide which fire in the forest I should dump the next load of water on or how I was going to help people keep their lots clear of weeds, that my eternal phone was normally off the hook during business hours. I will ever be grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who would often ring me up during off hours to keep me abreast of the ‘more important part’ I should be aware of. I came to look forward to the next 2 or 3 am call which would demand all my attention and require notes to be taken so that the counsel would not be forgotten as the demands of the next day tumbled upon me. It doesn’t take much imagination to come to a realization that most of us have missed many return calls from our Heavenly Father because we have been encumbered about by many things or just sleeping.

The scriptures speak of the need to have a clear signal which we recognize and therefore will be prone to respond to. All my life I have been able after hearing a voice on the phone one time, to recognize that voice whenever they would call again and identify the caller. It took me a long time to be convinced of the necessity of an answering machine which would identify callers. Prior to the invention of the printing press there was a dogma that the word of God would come only to those who had access to and could read the scriptures because these few had become familiar with the sound of His voice through the scriptures and therefore would recognize His voice when he chose to speak to His children. Although there are some problems with the dogma I do feel that familiarizing ourselves with scriptures can be a great aid in helping us recognize His voice and be alert to answers and instructions when His whisperings descend upon our minds. Is it possible that I have missed messages because they came to me as an uncertain sound because I have not paid the price to learn the intonations of his voice?

As the Book of Mormon draws to a conclusion we find a people who become so abominable that the Spirit of the Lord has been withdrawn and they are left to themselves without any communication with Deity. There is no doubt that the Lord has indicated that behavior and opening the communications from heaven have a great deal to do with one another. I think that Saul’s vision on the road to Damascus, Alma and his friend’s encounter with an Angel and the few other examples of someone in the depth of sin having their paths dramatically altered by divine intervention are demonstrations which by their rarity show us the uniqueness of such occurrences. For the vast majority of mortals we will rarely receive reassurances from heavenly sources while engaging in unseemly behavior. Once again, I wonder how many bits of light have been kept from my life because I was so submerged in darkness?

When I was young, for the most part I had little trouble accepting the fact that there were many people who could add to my small portion of knowledge. Almost greedily I sought to learn my ABC’s and 1 2 3’s but somewhere about the time of theorems and sentence structuring I started the process of becoming skeptical about what I was hearing from others and limiting who I would listen too. When a wiser person would have been expanding his stable of mentors, I was about the business of limiting those I considered worthy of my attentiveness. Luckily, before it was too late I woke and started to find some balance, where I would listen before I judged and try before I rejected. I don’t know if my life is typical, but I do know that having too healthful of an opinion of one’s own knowledge and point of view on subjects can weigh heavily upon one’s learning and progress. If Elder Hal Eyring is correct, many times the Lord will send His answers to our petitions through mortal angels. It would be well for me if I strip my pride so that it does not deter me from receiving heaven sent messages when these angels are sent and I hear them not, because my arrogance and single-mindedness blocks their message.

TO BE CONTINUED…