LDS General Authorities - Prayer

1977 Deseret Book Company All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company, P.O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book Company. Deseret Book is a registered trademark of Deseret Book Company.

INTRODUCTION

President N. Eldon Tanner

As a young boy in school, I was greatly impressed by these classic words, which almost every schoolchild has committed to memory:

More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"The Passing of Arthur"

Probably the impression was made because I lived in a home where we prayed individually and as a family, night and morning, every day, and also because I had had my prayers answered at different times and on different occasions. What a wonderful feeling of security it was to know I could call upon the Lord, that he was actually my Father in heaven, that he was interested in me, and that he could hear me and answer my prayers. This knowledge has always been a great source of comfort to me. It has given me confidence and strength when I have needed it most, and the ability to choose and make with confidence decisions that I could not have made otherwise. Having had these experiences, and feeling the need for divine guidance, it has always been my great desire and practice to ask for wisdom and guidance in all of my endeavors.

During my early years I naturally thought that because we prayed in our home, people all over the world had the same belief and were praying to their Heavenly Father. But as I grew older, I learned that many people never pray for guidance, or express their gratitude for the blessings they receive, or return thanks at mealtime for the food they eat. It was still more shocking to learn that there are those who don't even believe in God and therefore do not have faith in him and do not understand that he is a personal God, literally our Father in heaven; that we are his children; and that he can really hear and answer our prayers.

I can never begin to express enough my gratitude to my parents for teaching me this important principle. My father really knew how to talk to the Lord and made him seem so real and near to us. He would pray in the morning, "Let thy blessings attend us as we go about our duties, that we may do what is right and return tonight to report to thee."

I think of that very often, and what a help it is to me! If everyone kept that thought in mind during the day, in all of his activities, knowing that he was going to account to the Lord at night for what he had done that day, it would be a great deterrent to wrongdoing and a great help in accomplishing works of righteousness. It would be my desire that in this book you will find some of the same wonderful spirit and learn some of the same valuable principles that helped my father teach his children to talk to the Lord.

The Lord has admonished parents to teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before him. This is our most important obligation to our childrento teach them that they are the spirit children of their Heavenly Father, that he is real, that he has great love for his children and wants them to succeed, that they should pray to him to express gratitude and ask for guidance, realizing that faith in him will bring them greater strength, success, and happiness than they can receive from any other source.

We as parents must teach by example and let the efficacy of prayer in our own lives show our children the value of faith in God. How sad to deprive children of the great blessing of learning to know God and learning to depend on him for the comfort and strength and guidance they need so badly in order to cope with the problems of the day. It is equally sad when children are not taught that everything they have comes from God and that they should express their gratitude and strive to be worthy of the blessings they receive.

You remember the story of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. When one returned to give thanks, the Savior said: "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." (Luke 17:17-18.) The sin of ingratitude is grievous.

As we give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs, we should be conscious of others who need our faith and prayers. When we pray for Heavenly Father to bless the poor, the sick, and the needy, and to comfort those who mourn, we must follow our words with our deeds and be actively engaged in serving our fellowmen and ministering to their needs. We are the ones through whom the Lord accomplishes his purposes, and when we are blessed, we should in turn bless others.

We had a sweet experience in our family. As we finished calling upon the Lord in family prayer one evening, one of my daughters said, "Daddy, we have so many blessings, and so much to be thankful for, I wonder if we should ask the Lord for more blessings or if we should thank him for what we have and ask him to help us to be worthy of the blessings we now enjoy." I want to emphasize the importance of making ourselves worthy to accept all that our Father in heaven constantly bestows upon us.

It is easy to pray and give thanks when all is going well and we feel blessed and prosperous. The real test of our gratitude and love for the Lord is in our ability to do as Job did when his trials and tribulations seemed to be almost more than he could endure. He still gave thanks, praised the Lord, and said with all humility and sincerity, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." (See Job 19:25.)

Our Father in heaven knows our needs better than we. He knows what is for our good and the things we need to overcome in order to further our development and progression. We must learn to accept his will in all things, with the faith and assurance that in the end everything he does for us will redound to our good.

It is so important that parents call their children together night and morning, every day, and give each member of the family, one by one, the privilege of addressing the Lord on behalf of the family, expressing gratitude for the many blessings the family has received, and concern for individual and family problems. It is important for each person to ask for guidance in the morning, with the knowledge that he will report at night. Children should learn early in life that they can call upon their Father in heaven.

Each of us should be willing and ready to call on our Father in heaven every day. In this volume, men who have been chosen by our Father in heaven to serve him in this world give counsel to help those who are seeking to know more about prayer. They share with us a message of great importance, the message that this experience called prayer is the most important and vital of all communication.

May we all discover, if we have not already done so, that prayer is a vibrant, vital link with our Father in heaven that gives meaning and purpose to our lives, and that eternal happiness and progress can come only to those whose God is the Lord.

WHY THE LORD ORDAINED PRAYER