Prayer
Quotes and Scriptures
President
James E. Faust
“I
once heard of a Primary teacher who asked a little boy if he said his prayers
every night.
“Yes,”
he replied.
“And
do you always say them in the morning, too?” the Primary teacher asked.
“No,”
the boy replied. “I ain’t scared in the daytime.”
Fear
of the dark should not be our only motivation to pray—morning or night” (The
Lifeline of Prayer, CR, April 2002).
Elder
Neal A. Maxwell
“Isn’t
it marvelous…that God, who knows everything, still spend time listening to our
prayers?” (CR, Oct 2000).
Why
Pray?
Elder Richard G. Scott
We talk to God through
prayer. He most often communicates back to us through His written word. To know
what the voice of the Divine sounds and feels like, read His words, study the
scriptures, and ponder them. Make them an integral part of everyday
life
Don’t yield to Satan’s
lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to
study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep,
school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to
reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If
so, do it! (Make the Exercise of Faith
Your First Priority, General Conference, Oct 2014).
Elder
L. Edward Brown
“My
beloved brothers and sisters and friends, I bear earnest and solemn witness to
you that the Lord does communicate with us as individuals. Never, never fall
victim to the heinous thought that He does not care for you, that He does not
know you. That is a satanic lie, one designed to destroy you” (in Conference
Report, April 1997).
How to Pray
Elder
Richard G. Scott
“Don’t
worry about your clumsily expressed feelings. Just talk to your compassionate,
understanding Father. You are His precious child whom He loves perfectly and
wants to help. As you pray, recognize that Father in Heaven is near and He is
listening.
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, CR, April 2007).
Elder
Neal A. Maxwell
Petitioning
in prayer has taught me that the vault of heaven, with all its blessings, is to
be opened only by a combination lock: one tumbler falls when there is faith, a
second when there is personal righteousness, and the third and final tumbler
falls only when what is sought is (in God's judgment, not ours)
"right" for us. Sometimes we pound on the vault door for something we
want very much, in faith, in reasonable righteousness, and wonder why the door
does not open. We would be very spoiled children if that vault door opened any
more easily than it does now. I can tell, looking back, that God truly loves me
by the petitions that, in his perfect wisdom and love, he has refused to grant
me. Our rejected petitions tell us not only much about ourselves, but also much
about our flawless Father” ("Insights from My Life," p. 200).
Bible
Dictionary-Prayer
As
soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely,
God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes
natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called
difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is
the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought
into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the
will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is
already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them.
Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them.
Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of
all blessings.
Some Scriptures
1
Nephi 18:3
2
Nephi 32:8-9
Alma
34:17–28
D&C
8:2-3
D&C
9:8-9
D&C
10:5
Psalm
99:6
Matthew
6:5-7
