Tonight, when my family's home-teachers came by like they do every month, i learned something that i hadn't really thought about. Since it dealt with different principles of prayer, i kinda started reflecting about things i've learned about prayer over the last couple years.
Before i left for Georgia, i wasn't a big praying person. I mean, i would pray now and then but it was really inconsistent and i didn't put much into it as i should have. But i soon learned how important it is and some things i've come to learn about prayer.
-Prayer isn't like calling for a pizza and placing an order: "Hey, yeah...ummm....i'd like this and this and could it come with that too? Thanks, bye." And then after placing such order, we may think that if the answer doesn't come in an hour or less, then we should have our next day be temptation/trial free. Listening is one of the things needed as we pray. If we don't listen, then we essentially hang up the phone.
-Prayer is our one-on-one communication with God. He isn't our buddy down the street that we say "Yo man, what up?!" Since God is our Heavenly Father, the language we use should be reverent and diginified, since we are literally talking to deity.
-Sometimes, if i've had a bad day i have a tendency to vent in my prayers. When bad things happen and dont go my way, i wonder at times if my prayers are even heard and not evaporating into thin air. It can be hard at times to think that prayers are heard, but i know that God answers in His time and in His way. And almost always, those prayers are answered in ways we dont we think of at first, but are exactly what is needed.
-When we ask for deliverance from our trials in prayer, i've found out that the answer a lot of the times to that is "No." In 2 Corinthians 13, when Paul asked God to remove the "thorn in the flesh", it took him three tries until God told him that His is sufficient for him. In the Book of Mormon, the people of Alma were being subjected to bondage and many trials, and when they prayed at first, God told them that he'd lighten their load but not completely take them away...since the Lord chastens whom He loves. Joseph Smith was in a dungeon of a jail cell for months during a Missouri winter, and when he prayed for relief, the Lord said that "all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good." Trials dont immediately go away when we pray for relief or deliverance. God uses those trials and experiences to teach us and shape us to be better people; meaning those things are good for us in the long run. Remember, after Christ was tempted of Satan three times, it was only after that that the "angels came and ministered unto Him."
-We should ask questions in our prayers. Sometimes we get more questions out of prayer than answers, and i believe that God wants us to ask Him what we could do better on or how we can align our will with His. Ever so silently from the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, we get an answer and then learn from that how to improve the next day and so on.
Now, thats only a few things i've learned. I've been able to receive answers to some prayers and others im still being tested on and will continue to seek the answer. I can imagine that i still have a lifetime of prayers to be said, a lifetime of trials to face, and an eternity of answers to receive. As President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said recently, "Hold on a little longer. You can do this! You are part of a special generation. You were prepared and preserved to live at this important time in the existence of our beautiful planet earth. You have a celestial pedigree and therefore have all the necessary talents to make your life an eternal success story." (Ensign, January 2010)
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