Prayer

Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 Pray always, that you may come off conqueror⁠; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

I have always been a firm believer in prayer. There have been many times in my life that prayer has brought me peace and comfort. As a child I was really scared of storms. One day I was home alone and there was a pretty bad storm. I knelt down and said a prayer that I wouldn’t be afraid and I felt a peace come over me. I guess you could say that I was born with a gift of faith in prayer. But from that moment on, communication with Heaven became real for me.

Junior high was an especially rough time for me. In 7th grade I had to go to a new school, there were only 3 of us that had transferred, and I felt like the only odd one. My mom would say a prayer with me every morning before school. It didn’t completely take away the challenge, but helped me feel I could at least make it through. Which I obviously did.

Even though I have always believed in prayer, I have struggled with asking for anything too specific or for anything outside of comfort or peace. I’ve always felt like when it comes to anything outside of that, God already had his mind made up about what would happen. I kind of got to a point in my life where I felt like it didn’t really matter what I specifically wanted. Thy will be done felt like a phrase that meant “never mind what I want/need”.

In recent years I have been trying to have my prayers be more authentic. I'm trying to let God know what I want and why I want it, but also trust that He knows best. I feel like this has been such a game changer in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. It makes me feel like what I want does matter, and if my prayers don’t get answered it isn’t because God doesn’t love me or doesn’t care. It is because He has a better way that will be more beneficial. As I have seen this work, it has increased my confidence in the love Heavenly Father has for me and has also helped increase my trust in Him.

Let me share a personal story that helps put it in perspective. When our youngest son was little he wanted a pocketknife. He had seen his dad use one and thought they were so cool. As his parents, we knew giving him a pocketknife would not be safe because he was not yet skilled enough to know how to use one sensibly and would have caused a lot of harm to himself and perhaps others around him. So, we got him a bottle opener that would flip open like a knife does. Eventually as he got older we got him a pocketknife that would actually cut things. He knew how to use it appropriately so it became a useful tool that he could use to be helpful to his dad, rather than a harmful weapon. He could have stopped asking for a pocketknife - or anything else he wanted - thinking we weren't going to give him one anyway. Since he had asked specifically for a pocketknife so he could be like his dad, we knew this was a desire of his and were just waiting for the right time to give it to him. We weren't trying to ignore his desires or punish him in some way, we just wanted him to be safe. Finally there came a time when he was matured enough to handle the responsibility of having one, and it gave us great pleasure to give him one. That is what it's like to pray a more specific prayer. And even though God may not answer it the way we want in the time we want, it doesn't mean he hasn't heard it or that he doesn't also want that for us. He is just waiting for the right time for us to be ready for the gift. And sometimes he will give us a little something in the moment that allows us to know He is there and listening.

I want to share a couple of relatively recent, powerful testimony strengthening experiences I have had with answers to my prayers. The first one was an experience I had with finding a job. I had been applying for jobs without much success. One night I found this job that required me to take a couple of online tests. Upon completion I learned that I hadn’t done super great on the tests. That was the last straw for me. I knelt at the side of my bed in a heap of despair and let all my frustrations and failures pour out to God. I didn’t know how I was ever going to land a job. Imagine my surprise when the next morning this company called me for an interview. Long story short, I got hired and I knew it was an answer to my heartfelt, pleading prayer. After only a few months of working there, my husband and I decided to move. I was heartbroken because I absolutely loved this job. Telling them I was quitting was the hardest thing ever.

Fast forward a couple of months and this same company reached out to me wondering if I would temporarily help them out remotely. Of course I said “YES!” This was a temporary offer and it came time that I needed to start looking for a permanent job. So once again I was filling out applications and going to interviews. However, this time I was actually getting job offers. There was one company that I felt pretty confident was going to offer me a job. It was the day of my final interview and even though I was grateful for the opportunity to have a job, I wasn’t super excited about some aspects…like the commute. That morning I said a prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to help me know if this was the right job for me and then I said, “What I really want is to just be able to keep working for (the company I was currently working for).” I barely got clocked into my temporary job and they called and offered me a permanent position. It’s almost been two years that I have been working remotely and I am so in love with my job. I love what I do, I love the people I work with, and I love the values of the company. But most importantly, I feel seen and heard by God!

The most recent experience happened when my husband and I were driving back from a road trip. We got about halfway home and our truck just died. The location was absolutely perfect. We were on a straight stretch of a mountain pass, where there was room to pull out. We were also in the middle of two very friendly and helpful homeowners. After some time assessing the situation and calling for some mechanic advice, my husband said a prayer. He prayed that one of the homeowners would have some oil we could use and that we would get home safely without anymore problems. We did get some oil from one of the kind residents and we made the three hour drive home with no more problems. (I had also asked a couple of my prayer warrior friends to blanket our prayer with theirs). Two days later we drove the truck 20 miles and it quit on us again. This solidified my testimony that we had arrived home from our trip by the power of prayer.

In Alma 33:8 it says: “Yea, thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men, and thou wilt hear them.” When we pray to be heard of God and not for the show of it, God will hear our prayers.

When the truck broke down I told myself that all would be well because God would not forsake us. I put my whole trust in Him and knew that He would deliver us. I was able to do this because of the previous experience I had had with praying for my job. The more I see answers to my prayers, the more confident I am that God hears the pleadings of my heart, and the more trust I have in Him when I pray. So when your prayers get answered, record it and remember it so you can depend on it for next time.