Because this blog was started in an effort to achieve therapeutic release via blog venting, it seems fitting to share the talk I gave in church last week with my loyal blog audience. The topic was pray often, an idea which has become the strongest of the many components in my NYC swiss army knife. The talk encapsulates the incredible renovation that I have undergone in the last year of which I am very proud and for which I am extremely grateful. I personally find it interesting that I, of all people, ended up creating blog entries all of which revolved around religious themes. Though my entries were few, the experiences about which I have written in the past and am now sharing with you are the experiences through which I have found joy in my New York journey, and are therefore experiences that are very close to my heart.
I have been asked to speak on the topic of praying often, and if there is one thing I have learned over the past year living in New York it has been to pray often. Ask anyone close to me and they will tell you it is a miracle that I, of all people, moved to New York City. A native Utahan, with no intentions or desires to leave, I never imagined my life outside of my safe, stable home environment. I am a person who loves nothing more than to spend time with the ones I love and being that I come from a family of all girls, my best friends are my sisters. Therefore, life at home was everything that made me happy. But a series of choices lead me to acknowledge my need to face life’s challenges independent of the stability I found in the form of my family members and a familiar environment. As such, here I am with a strong testimony of the power of prayer, and how God will bless our lives if we can activate his power through prayer and then look for those blessings in our lives. I have a testimony of the power of prayer because without it I never would have made it to this point in my New York journey. Being in New York has forced me into a phase of personal renovation instigated by my constant need for Heavenly Fathers hand in my life. Like many of you I am sure, I moved to the city on faith alone, knowing no one, never having seen my apartment or meet my roommates. I knew nothing about life here, however I had to function on the faith that this was the experience Heavenly Father wanted me to have and as such faced the difficulty of this situation knowing it was what I needed, never questioning that, but afraid of the changes that would inevitably ensue. I mean when getting from my apartment on 89th street to the subway on 86th was a psychological, mental, emotional and physical ropes course, you can imaging how life in New York might be excessively challenging for me. But it has forced me to recognize my own insignificance and embrace the magnificent strength and humility found in embracing the reality of God’s power and his ability to change our lives from shaky at best to something worth building on. Now that you have all been debriefed on my life leading up to my experiences in the city I believe you can begin to use the testimony I have gained over the last year to help you face the challenges of your life with joy and positivity through prayer.
Prayer is a gift from our Heavenly Father, which allows us to access the blessings that he would have us receive. In Alma 37:36-37 Alma councils his son Helaman: “Cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”
The beauty of prayer is that it is personal and can take place at anytime, for any reason and in any situation. It is a tool in our mortal toolkit, which prepares us to receive the blessings before us. We are commanded to pray in the morning and in the evening both in families and personally. As we do so, we come to know God and we can align our will more closely with God’s will and thereby secure God’s blessings for others and ourselves.
It is important to remember that in order to receive the blessings of prayer we must offer sincere prayers with real intent meaning we are willing to submit our will to God’s will and act according to the answers we receive. I believe that one way to pray with sincerity is to develop a testimony of the power of prayer where one is aware that God does hear and answer our prayers. Inversely, to develop a testimony of prayer one has to pray with real intent and be willing to act on faith before an answer may become clear. So it is through this symbiotic relationship between sincerity and intent that we have the power to develop a testimony of prayer and receive God’s blessings. In Moroni 7:9 the prophet Mormon warned that if anyone “shall pray and not with real intent of heart…it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.” However I am all too aware that it is very difficult to act on the answer we receive and that sometimes it is difficult to ask for something because we know we are not at a place to receive whatever it is that the answer might be. Therefore in my life I have asked Heavenly Father to help me prepare myself that I may find the power to act according to his will when I do receive a specific answer. This preparation phase has been very important in my life and has allowed me to progress in ways I wouldn’t have had I not asked for the ability to act when the correct path was became clear. One such answer came in the form of a friend. About 2 years ago I was going through a difficult time in my life. I lacked the faith to do what I thought I needed to do. I was praying constantly that I might know what I needed to do to get my life in line with the Lord’s will. I had been praying for months that I might not only receive an answer but that I might also have the strength to act on that prompting. When my answer did come, it came in the form of a good friend simply writing me a letter telling me that I had been in his thoughts and that he was praying for me. As simple as that may sound that was a moment where my friend was able to bless my life through his obedience to promptings and in so doing I was able to change my life and begin to cultivate a life where I was willing to do what God had asked of me so as I might have a happy life. Another beautiful thing about prayer is that when we maybe loosing the determination and strength needed to continue doing what the Lord has asked , prayer prepares us to recognize the tender mercies of the Lord which can give us the power to endure.
In Matthew 7:7-8 the Savior teaches “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Please note the active nature of this promise. “Seek, knock, and find” are all active words, which highlight the necessity of our own role in the process of receiving answers to prayers. We cannot simply ask and hope the Lord will magically grant our wish. We have to actively do all that we can and then ask the Lord for his help in making up the difference. So when we are faced with life’s decisions we must, as suggested in Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-8, study it out in our mind, and then the Lord, in the appropriate time will help us make the appropriate decisions for our lives. However, sometimes we must have faith first, act on what we think is the appropriate decision, and council with the Lord along the way to ensure we have acted correctly. Elder Richard G. Scott highlights this idea in his talk Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer. He states “Communicating with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter. It is a sacred privilege. It is based upon unchanging principles. When we receive help from our Father in Heaven it is in response to faith, obedience, and the proper use of agency. It is a mistake to assume that every prayer we offer will be answered immediately. Some prayers require considerable effort on our part.” He continues, “When we explain a problem and a proposed solution, sometimes He answers yes. Sometimes no. Often He withholds an answer, not for lack of concern, but because He loves us- perfectly. He wants us to apply truths that He has given us. For us to grow we need to trust our ability to make correct decisions. We need to do what we feel is right. In time, He will answer. He will not fail us.” It is through this type of activity that I have developed a great testimony of prayer’s ability to put us in the right place at the right time for the right reason. Some of the most rewarding spiritual experiences in my life have come as a result of my own willingness to act on what I felt was right, acting on faith, before having received an obvious confirmation that my decision was correct. However, after acting on that decision and through continual prayer regarding that decision I was able to recognize, when the Lord confirmed, that I had chosen an appropriate path.
An example of this in my life was related to my decision to come to the city. Initially I was confident that I had made the appropriate decision in moving, but as I was confronted with trials I found myself unsure, questioning my decision and wondering if my struggles were in vain. Praying continually for the strength I needed to continue facing the challenge that is life in New York, the Lord blessed me with a confirmations, that he was proud of my decision to move to the city, through a priesthood blessing several moths after I had made the initial move.
Another experience I have had with prayer was also related to decision-making. Over the Christmas season I was faced with the decision of what to do after my time in school had ended. I was a mess, torn up for several months over whether or not I should stay in the city, get a job and settle or if there was another path I should peruse. The decisions were so large and the consequences even greater that I was afraid of making the decision on my own. I pleaded with the Lord asking what I should do, and asking for the ability to recognize and take the right opportunity if it presented itself. But after months of no clarity regarding this decision I was forced to move forward, but I was continually praying that I might be able to make the appropriate decisions. So at that time I entered a phase of constant re-evaluation, asking am I still on the right path, what might be the next move, and I took on the situations I had been praying about little by little doing my best to do what was right, and as I actively attacked the situation I received a confirmation from the holy ghost telling my heart what was correct. So it took constant prayer, faith, and me working through each problem step by step before I was blessed with a confirmation. Neither of the above confirmations were received easily. They required me to struggle, pray, do all that I could and maintain faith that in the Lord’s time I would know what I should do. I had to work for it, and was than given confirmation in unexpected places showing me the importance of praying and listening for those moments of clarity and truth. Elder Scott further highlighted this idea. He stated, “Most often what we have chosen to do is right. He will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through packets of help found along the way. We discover them by being spiritually sensitive. They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His approval.”
I love you all, and I hope you can find a way to incorporate prayer into your day continually.
Love,
Candy
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