One morning, when we lived in Quito, Ecuador, I called my wife to tell an important visitor would arrive at the airport in an hour and I like to take home for lunch. With marked enthusiasm, she said she would do everything possible to keep the house clean and prepare a good meal.
In those days we lived with a woman named Roza, who helped my wife cooking and other chores. Roza was about thirty years old and was very faithful to their own religion. Often we tried to talk about the Church and the Gospel, but she would not listen. In fact, when we tried to do, usually treated us very coldly.
This particular morning, while my wife and Roza ran around the kitchen trying to prepare lunch, discovered that she had lost the mixer needed to make a cake. That was a moment of great frustration. At the time Ecuador was not possible to prepare a cake using packaged ingredients, had to do with each of the ingredients. And now they had the necessary for this device.
At that time, our seven-year-old walked into the kitchen and heard what was happening. He listened for a few minutes and then innocently told Roza: "So I lost the blender, eh?" It made a little more angry, and he added: "Well, if you really want to find, why not ask the Lord to help? He knows where he is."
She replied rather impatiently: "You do not have to pray for things like that! Remove yourself from the kitchen so you can find it!"
He ran off, but after a few minutes Roza felt bad for having insulted a young child and went to look. He found him kneeling on his bedroom saying a prayer: "Heavenly Father, we have a serious problem in the kitchen. Santa will bring to an important person for lunch. Mom is angry. Roza has lost the mixer and does not believe that you know where is. If you just show us where is the mixer, we can solve the whole problem. "
Within minutes, they found the blender. Someone might say that everything was a coincidence, but I think it was through faith that a small child was in the Lord Jesus Christ. Roza was amazed to see that the Lord answered the prayer of a little boy, and especially about something as insignificant as a mixer. That experience gave him some very strong spiritual impressions about the value of prayer.
The sweetest part of this experience was that two or three weeks later I had the privilege of baptizing Roza in the Church. I carried out that order, but it was a boy of seven years as an instrument of the Lord, turned to the truth. It was he who taught him that no matter what the problem is, if we are really worried about it, so is the Lord. He will help us in any circumstance that is of real concern to us.
is true that God answers the prayers of children, even about small things. It is also true that He answers prayers adult and are interested in helping in any aspect of our lives. But our ability to receive answers to our prayers will increase if we prepare our hearts and our minds to communicate with our Heavenly Father and if, at the same time, we prepare to receive the responses.
Here are some important ways we can prepare our hearts and our minds to prayer.
HAVE FAITH IN CHRIST
The most important thing we can do to communicate with our Heavenly Father is to have faith in Jesus Christ. If we have faith in Christ, we have faith in our Heavenly Father, because Christ has given a clear testimony about Him
Some people consider faith as positive. That's just part of what faith really is. Faith is the power that holds the worlds in place. Faith is the power by which God works. When we have faith, we have access to His divine power.
But we must remember that the commandment not only have faith in a general sense. We must have faith in a particular person, faith in Jesus Christ. When we seek to better understand what this means, we will understand why we conclude our prayers "in the name of Jesus Christ." When we pray in this way, we implore the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to intervene on our behalf. If we can focus our faith in Him, that will help us to possess much more power than if we pray without that kind of faith.
When his brothers tied him with ropes and tried to take his life, Nephi pleaded in prayer
Oh Lord, on my faith in you, save me from the hands of my brothers, yes, give me strength to break these bonds that hold me down!
And when I said these words, behold, they were loose the bands of my hands and my feet (1 Nephi 7:17-18).
Alma and had Amulek a similar experience when they were also tied with ropes.
And Alma cried, saying ... Oh Lord, strengthen us in our faith in Christ to have the power to deliver. And they broke the cords with which they were attached (Alma 14:26).
Note that they had no faith in their own strength, trust in the Lord and depended on the strength of Him is faith in Christ that will save us from our own bonds, is to increase our faith in Christ that we will provide additional power in prayers.
All we can strengthen our faith in knowing:
1. God hears and answers our prayers (see D & C 98:2-3, 88:2). I do not think there been a single sincere prayer offered by anyone from the "principle" that has gone unanswered.
2. God lives and loves us, and give us the correct answer to every sincere prayer, no matter what the question (see Moroni 10:4-5).
3. We are all children of God and servants of the Lord.
We can pray as he did Samuel, "Speak, for thy servant heareth" (1 Samuel 3:10).
4. No matter what our age, our position in the church or how long they are members of it. The Lord wants to respond to our sincere requests regardless of these things.
If your faith is weak, you can rely on the testimony of someone else-a parent, teacher or leaders-while seeking to strengthen their own faith.
REPENT SINS OF
Repentance is a fundamental element for the Lord's blessings.
hat history lost (in the previous chapter) illustrates the need for repentance in direct proportion to the problem you are mentioning in their prayers. First, my son was angry at having lost his hat and wallet and it had to repent before he could continue. Second, I hesitated for a moment we could find the lost among the weeds and had plenty to repent of such feeling.
also need to repent in other ways if we hope to be able to receive the blessings of the Lord. The more worthy we are, the better we can turn with confidence to the Lord and receive answers to our prayers.
often not enough simply to be "worthy to enter the temple." Repentance can inspire us to fast with greater awareness, to pray more, to increase our humility, to search the Scriptures, and so on. To the extent that we are willing to change and give up our own sins to the Savior to purify, we can also indirectly influence various events and others. If we sacrifice and are willing to pay the price, and if you agree with the Lord's will, we get what we want in righteousness.
Part of repentance is confession, by which we confess our sins to the detriment of another person. Some serious sins must be confessed to the bishop, but virtually all of them must confess to the Lord. What the Lord said about Martin Harris is applied to each of us:
And now, unless it is humble and confess to me the bad things he has done, and then agreement me that keep my commandments, and who has faith in me, behold, I say you will not receive [the blessings we receive seeks v] (D & C 5:28).
humiliation before the Lord
Doctrine and Covenants the Lord humility directly correlated with the answers to prayer when he said:
Be humble and the Lord your God will hold your hand and will answer your prayers (DyC112: 10).
When we are humble, we recognize that we depend on the Lord and because of that we turn to Him to give us help and guidance in many circumstances, and open our hearts and minds to receive them.
Some people argue that we should not bother the Lord with small things. In a way, that's a spirit of pride, a sense of wanting to do things our own way instead of trying to discover and do God's will.
is very common in today's world hear about being self-sufficient and confident in himself. We hear that we must learn to do things for self-at last, after all, is not it that the Lord has blessed us with good intelligence and the ability to think about things and reasons for our own?
However, this approach separates us from the spirit of humility and under the Lord. Of course the Lord wants us to do everything within our ability, but if we exaggerate our attitude of self begin to believe that we can live life without His help.
Nephi concerned precisely this issue: Are there some things that no I pray? Or should pray about everything? If so, why do not we? Why is that we live each day depending solely on our own capacity?
Nephi lamented about this when he spoke to members of the Church. After showing that the Holy Spirit would show "all things that [were] doing" (2 Nephi 32:5), he said, "And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts: and I sorry to have to speak regarding this. " In other words, he said: "I hate to talk about prayer, because they should know that this is the way we receive the Holy Spirit's guidance. I am sorry to have to mention, but do it anyway because they need ".
Then he offered this significant statement:
Because if we listen to the Spirit that teaches man to pray you would know that it is necessary to pray for the evil spirit does not teach a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray (2 Nephi 32:8).
The Lord wants us to progress and we strengthens, we are able to do much good, but through it all also want to depend on His Spirit to guide us.
On the other hand, Satan wants us to depend on him. The devil tells us we should not pray. That applies not only to those who are not members of the Church, he tries to influence each of us, saying: "Come on, John, no need to pray for that matter, has no importance. Do not disturb the Lord ". Or maybe: "Mary, you can fix this by yourself." Or: "I know you are very tired tonight, so it is best to leave your prayers for tomorrow morning you do so. Tomorrow you might even spend more time with your prayers. "And the devil whispers, for the evil spirit does not teach a man to pray. At the same time, the Holy Spirit is teaching us to pray.
Now consider the following verse: "Behold, I tell you that you must always pray and not faint." When I pray? Forever! "Nothing must do" - what does that say? Nothing!
Nothing must do before the Lord, without first pray to the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy action so that your work is for the benefit of your souls (2Nefi32: 9).
That does not mean that we only have to pray before our tasks in the Church. We pray in search of inspiration, guidance and blessings in every aspect of our lives. As Alma taught:
implores God for all your support, yes, let all your deeds in the Lord, and wherever you go, whether in the Lord, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord yea, let the affections of your heart upon the Lord forever.
Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good (Alma 37:36-37).
is much that these verses contain. Lord knows there are things we can do for ourselves if we so choose. (Although at a deeper level, where we belong, we can not do for ourselves, the air we breathe belongs to Him, everything that concerns our life is a gift from God.) But the Lord says: " I know you can do many things for themselves, but whether their actions are for their spiritual welfare must consagrármelas pray and me. "Sometimes, the purpose of such sentences is to consult, communicate what we plan to do and ask you to bless us. But at the same time we ask you to instruct us and lead us: Am direction? Is there anything Lord, that should change what I plan to do? Is this OK? Is there anything else that could be better?
There is also always the danger of emphasizing too much fervor, these ideas about we depend entirely on the Lord. Some people find it too easy to be fanatical, some people think that one must be constantly on their knees praying when in fact we should be putting to work after praying and keep praying in our hearts.
Some people expect the Lord to do everything and reveal things that have not even bothered to study beforehand in his mind (see D & C 9). Some go to extremes and may say with some pride: "I have been praying continuously for the last two nights I slept even" or "Three days ago I am fasting." Or a young man who has just returned from his mission might say, "I've been waiting for five years to have a wife. I have been praying and praying, but the Lord still I sent it. I have not had many dates, but I'm sure that when the Lord will find the will to come to me and we'll know. "
Others are likely to be paralyzed into inactivity, waiting for a response from heaven when in fact the Lord would be requiring them to go ahead and proceed in the best way they can, before you confirm the direction.
Brigham Young once said
If you do not know the will of my Father and what He requires of me in certain circumstances. . ., If I ask you to give me wisdom about every need in life or about my course or my friends, my family, my children or those who preside over and he does not answer, then I do what advised me that the reason the Lord is obliged to accept and honor such action, and will in all respects (Journal of Discourses, 3:205; see Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, page 50)..
Recognizing that depend on the Lord, increase our humility and enhance our ability to really communicate with him Anyone who is truly humble will do in their power to fulfill their responsibilities, knowing that the answers to your prayers are a mutual effort that requires both the efforts of man as God.
OBEY THE COMMANDMENTS
King Benjamin taught:
I we consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual (Mosiah 2:41).
The more we fulfill the commandments, the greater our capacity to receive the blessings of the Lord, even answers to our prayers.
The Scriptures clearly teach the connection between obedience and getting answers to our prayers. Here are two examples:
If not harden your hearts, ye shall ask in faith believing you will receive, dutifully keeping my commandments, surely you will manifest these things (1 Nephi 15:11).
Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing to Him (1 John 3:22).
be willing to sacrifice
usually blessings are not free. In exchange for them, the Lord usually requires obedience and sacrifice. We must "sacrifice, pay the price."
Almost every sacrifice takes the form of repentance of sins and abandon bad habits that attract us so much. But when leave, we are greatly blessed, not only reject but also to receive a greater influence of the Spirit in our lives.
The sacrifice of repentance is part of what he referred to the Lord when he said:
offer sacrifice to the Lord thy God in righteousness, that of a heart broken and a contrite spirit (D & C 59:8).
sacrifice can actually increase the power of our prayers, if it holy. Suppose, for example, that you are the mother or father of a son who is moving away from the path of righteousness. I think you could pray much for him to return. Could do a lot fast for him to return home. You might regret enough of their own sins so that through his sacrifice that the Lord would intervene more in the youth's life and save him. It would not be that you were paying for their own sins, Jesus has already done for you. But through his will, through slaughter, you achieved blessings that might not otherwise receive. (Of course, these things still depend on the will of others, our prayers can not interfere with the agency of those for whom we pray. But the sacrifice and fervent prayer can be helpful. There is much we can accomplish with such sentences, even when completely fail to bring our loved ones back home. And such sentences, we are lost).
One must also remember to pray always subject to the will of the Lord in all things. Certainly the Lord will always take place. We consider all these essential steps to improve our prayers, elements over which we exercise some control, but we must always remember that, despite our wishes and our best efforts to do what we appropriate, the Lord's will ultimately be the determining factor.
INCREASE THE DESIRE
The Lord has said it will give us all according to our desires (See, for example, Enos 1:12, Alma 9 : 20, 18:35, 29:5, 41:3-5, D & C 11:17). In preparing our minds and our hearts to pray, we can increase our desire to speak to the Lord more diligently seek our desires line up with God and desire more fervently His answers.
When Nephite disciples prayed in Jesus' presence, "not multiply many words, because it was what they should pray, and full of yearning" (3 Nephi 19:24).
And the Lord has promised today:
Here, according to your wishes, yes, according to your faith will be done (D & C 11 : 17).
These promises can be for each one of us, if we try.
Part of being able to increase our desires is to be sincere to procure them. Earlier we mentioned the promise the Lord gave to Martin Harris:
If he bows to me, and humbles himself with fervent prayer and faith, with sincerity of heart, then you concede that you want to look at things see (D & C 5:24).
Moroni also stressed the need to be sincere in our prayers when he said:
[Ask] God ... if these things are true, and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth of them (Moroni 10:4).
ELIMINATE THE HEART OF ANGER AND CONTAINMENT
When my son wanted us to help him find his hat and wallet, I knew we could not help through prayer because I was so exasperated. You can not get answers to your prayers when you feel anger in his heart. But after kneeling humbly and let the Lord deliver him from his frustration, he was ready for us to try to help you get the answer he craved.
Of course, this applies not only in cases of anger but also in every negative emotion, lust, jealousy, greed, contention, revenge, resentment, doubt, etc..
MIND CONTROL
Jacob was referring to the blessing that comes to discipline the mind in prayer
I , Jacob, I want to warn you who are pure of heart. Trust in God with minds firm, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and advocate for your cause, and that justice will be upon those who seek your destruction (Jacob 3:1).
The Lord counseled Oliver Cowdery saying that would be more successful in receiving the inspiration needed to translate the Book of Mormon if you studied first in his mind (see DyC9: 8). Concentrating the mind on a particular problem helps us prepare to receive the Lord's inspiration.
Santiago, in the New Testament, add your testimony about how important it is to focus mentally when it comes to receiving answers to our prayers:
And if any of you lack wisdom, ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and will be given.
him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by wind and tossed back and forth.
let not he shall, to receive anything from the Lord.
The double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8)
Focus and concentrate his mind on his prayers and blessings that seeks to receive is a significant exercise of his discretion that will help you be worthy of the Lord's blessings. This concentration is part of faith and faith is essential to receiving answers to prayers.
Preparing our hearts and minds to receive answers from the Lord blesses us in two important ways:
First, it helps to qualify for the blessings we seek. The Lord honors us when we try to be fair, both externally and internally, and want to answer our prayers and help in our problems.
Second, to turn our minds and hearts to the Lord, we will be able to receive the blessings granted to us. The Lord, through Joseph Smith, said:
speak your mind and your heart through the Holy Spirit has come upon you and dwell in your heart.
Now, behold, it is the spirit of revelation (D & C 8:2-3).
Limhi King said his people would receive the blessings of the Lord asking if it "[become] the Lord with full purpose of heart, and [putting his] confidence in him and [he served ] with all the diligence of the soul "(Mosiah 7:33).
And so it has to be with us all. If we expect answers to our prayers, as did my dear son when we lost the blender, we must first prepare our hearts and our minds.
GETTING ANSWERS FAST
Before concluding this chapter, I answer a question that has made me often. Is there something that determines how quickly the Lord answered?
Behind this question is seen observing the Lord seems to immediately answer the prayers of some, while others must be patient for a long time.
I believe that the Doctrine and Covenants 101 gives us a good answer to this Question:
were slow to hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, therefore, the Lord your God is slow to hear their prayers and answer them in the day of their trouble.
In the days of peace they esteemed lightly my counsel, but on the day of their trouble of necessity they feel to me (D & C 101:7-8).
These verses contain a lament of the Lord, a lament that most of us do not seriously worry about anything until we are in a serious emergency. And then I beg the Lord to help us.
And in essence, He says, "Where were they when things were going well and why not come unto me?"
I believe that when we are slow to hear the voice of the Lord, He is so slow to hear our prayers and answer us on the day of our difficulties.
Of course, even in recent days have been slow to turn to God, we repent. As the Lord is saying:
Assuredly, I say, notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion for them (D & C 101:9).
I think if you want to increase the speed with which the Lord would answer, you need to increase the speed with which respond to the voice of the Spirit.
A second requirement: We can not answer reluctantly. "The Lord requires the heart and a willing mind" requires not only be "obedient", but also we are "willing" (D & C 64:34). He also requires us to accept Gifts with gratitude, even if such gifts appear to be probations:
But in everything God sends you ask, who gives li-liberal, and what the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving (D & C 46:7).
Finally, if we want the Lord to respond quickly, we must be humble. Section 112 of the Doctrine and Covenants contains these beautiful words: "Be humble and the Lord thy God I hold your hand and will answer your prayers "(DyC112: 10). What a beautiful gem! If you are humble, He will hold your hand to show what a sacrifice is necessary and then I will answer your prayers.
But it is necessary that in all this remember that although we quickly answer will not always be "yes." According to His wisdom and His will, could answer "no" or "maybe later" .
In fact, then what usually determines our ability to receive immediate response is ourselves, our own heart and mind. If our hearts and our minds are pure, if we return to the Lord and try to apply the principles presented in this chapter, learn how to enhance our ability to get answers more quickly and clearly.
