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Why the Lord Ordained Prayer By Elder
Bruce R. McConkie
Bruce R. McConkie, “Why the
Lord Ordained
Prayer,”
Ensign, Jan. 1976, 7
On the west wall of the Council of the Twelve room in the Salt Lake Temple hangs a picture of the Lord Jesus as he prays in Gethsemane to his Father.
In agony beyond compare, suffering both body and spirit,
to an extent incomprehensible to man—the coming torture
of the cross paling into insignificance—our Lord is here
pleading with his Father for strength to work out the
infinite and eternal atonement.
Of all the
prayers ever uttered, in time or in eternity—by
gods, angels, or mortal men—this one stands supreme,
above and apart, preeminent over all others.
In this garden called Gethsemane, outside Jerusalem’s
wall, the greatest member of Adam’s race, the One whose
every thought and word were perfect, pled with his
Father to come off triumphant in the most torturous
ordeal ever imposed on man or God.
There, amid the olive trees—in the spirit of pure
worship and perfect
prayer—Mary’s
Son struggled under the most crushing burden ever born
by mortal man.
There, in the quiet of the Judean night, while Peter,
James, and John slept—with
prayer
on his lips—God’s own Son took upon himself the sins of
all men on conditions of repentance.
Upon his Suffering Servant, the great Elohim, there and
then, placed the weight of all the sins of all men of
all ages who believe in Christ and seek his face. And
the Son, who bore the image of the Father, pled with his
divine Progenitor for power to fulfill the chief purpose
for which he had come to earth.
This was the hour when all eternity hung in the balance.
So great was the sin-created agony—laid on him who knew
no sin—that he sweat great drops of blood from every
pore, and “would,” within himself, that he “might not
drink the bitter cup.” (D&C
19:18.) From creation’s dawn to this
supreme hour, and from this atoning night through all
the endless ages of eternity there neither had been nor
would be again such a struggle as this.
“The Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from
all eternity to all eternity,” who had “come down from
heaven among the children of men” (Mosiah
3:5); the Creator, Upholder, and
Preserver of all things from the beginning, who had made
clay his tabernacle; the one person born into the world
who had God as his father; the very Son of God
himself—in a way beyond mortal comprehension—did then
and there work out the infinite and eternal atonement,
whereby all men are raised in immortality, while those
who believe and obey come forth also to an inheritance
of eternal life. God the Redeemer ransomed men from the
temporal and spiritual death brought upon them by Adam’s
fall.
And it was at this hour that he, who then bought us with
his own blood, offered the most pleading and poignant
personal
prayer ever to fall from mortal lips. God the Son
prayed to God the Father, that the will of the One might
be swallowed up in the will of the Other, and that he
might fulfill the promise made by him when he was chosen
to be the Redeemer: “Father, thy will be done, and the
glory be thine forever.” (Moses
4:2.)
True, as an obedient son whose sole desire was to do the
will of the Father who sent him, our Lord prayed always
and often during his mortal probation. By natural
inheritance, because God was his father, Jesus was
endowed with greater powers of intellect and spiritual
insight than anyone else has ever possessed. But in
spite of his superlative natural powers and
endowments—or, shall we not rather say, because of them
(for truly the more spiritually perfected and
intellectually gifted a person is, the more he
recognizes his place in the infinite scheme of things
and knows thereby his need for help and guidance from
Him who truly is infinite)—and so by virtue of his
superlative powers and endowments, Jesus above all men
felt the need for constant communion with the Source of
all power, all intelligence, and all goodness.
When the time came to choose the Twelve special
witnesses who should bear record of him and his law unto
the ends of the earth, and who should sit with him on
twelve thrones judging the whole house of Israel, how
did he make the choice? The inspired account says: “He
went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all
night in
prayer to God.” Having thus come to know the mind
and will of Him whose offspring he was, “when it was
day, … he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.” (Luke
6:12–13.)
When the hour of his arrest and passion were at hand;
when there remained one more great truth to be impressed
on the Twelve—that if they were to succeed in the
assigned work and merit eternal reward with him and his
Father they must be one even as he and the Father were
one—at this hour of supreme import, he taught the truth
involved as part of his great intercessory
prayer,
fragments of which are preserved for us in John 17.
When he, after his resurrection—note it well: after his
resurrection, he was still praying to the Father!—when
he, glorified and perfected, sought to give the Nephites
the most transcendent spiritual experience they were
able to bear, he did it, not in a sermon, but in a
prayer.
“The things which he prayed cannot be written,” the
record says, but those who heard bore this testimony:
“The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard,
before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and
heard Jesus speak unto the Father;
“And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written
by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so
great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard
Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which
filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us
unto the Father.” (3
Ne. 17:15–17.)
But here in Gethsemane—as a pattern for all suffering,
burdened, agonizing men—he poured out his soul to his
Father with pleadings never equaled. What petitions he
made, what expressions of doctrine he uttered, what
words of glory and adoration he then spoke we do not
know. Perhaps like his coming
prayer
among the Nephites the words could not be written, but
could be understood only by the power of the Spirit. We
do know that on three separate occasions in his
prayer
he said in substance and thought content: “Oh my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matt.
26:39.)
Here in Gethsemane, as he said to his Father, “not my
will, but thine, be done,” the inspired record says,
“There appeared an angel unto him from heaven,
strengthening him.
“And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down
to the ground.” (Luke
22:42–44.)
Now here is a marvelous thing. Note it well. The Son of
God “prayed more earnestly”! He who did all things well,
whose every word was right, whose every emphasis was
proper; he to whom the Father gave his Spirit without
measure; he who was the only perfect being ever to walk
the dusty paths of planet earth—the Son of God “prayed
more earnestly,” teaching us, his brethren, that all
prayers,
his included, are not alike, and that a greater need
calls forth more earnest and faith-filled pleadings
before the throne of him to whom the
prayers
of the saints are a sweet savor.
In this setting, then, seeking to learn and live the law
of prayer
so that we, like him, can go where he and his Father
are, let us summarize what is truly involved in the
glorious privilege of approaching the throne of grace.
Let us learn how to do so boldly and efficaciously, not
in word only but in spirit and in power, so that we may
pull down upon ourselves, even as he did upon himself,
the very powers of heaven. Perhaps the following ten
items will enable us to crystallize our thinking and
will guide us in perfecting our own personal
prayers.
1. What Prayer Is.
Once we dwelt in our Father’s presence, saw his face,
and knew his will. We spoke to him, heard his voice, and
received counsel and direction from him. Such was our
status as spirit children in the premortal life. We then
walked by sight.
Now we are far removed from the divine presence; we no
longer see his face and hear his voice as we then did.
We now walk by faith. But we need his counsel and
direction as much or more than we needed it when we
mingled with all the seraphic hosts of heaven before the
world was. In his infinite wisdom, knowing our needs, a
gracious Father has provided
prayer
as the means of continuing to communicate with him. As I
have written elsewhere:
“To pray is to speak with God, either vocally or by
forming the thoughts involved in the mind.
Prayers
may properly include expressions of praise,
thanksgiving, and adoration; they are the solemn
occasions during which the children of God petition
their Eternal Father for those things, both temporal and
spiritual, which they feel are needed to sustain them in
all the varied tests of this mortal probation.
Prayers
are occasions of confession—occasions when in humility
and contrition, having broken hearts and contrite
spirits, the saints confess their sins to Deity and
implore him to grant his cleansing forgiveness.” (Mormon
Doctrine, 2nd ed., p. 581.)
2. Why We Pray.
There are three basic and fundamental reasons why we
pray:
a. We are commanded to do so.
Prayer
is not something of relative insignificance which we may
choose to do if the fancy strikes us. Rather, it is an
eternal decree of Deity. “Thou shalt repent and call
upon God in the name of the Son forevermore,” was his
word in the first dispensation. “And Adam and Eve, his
wife, ceased not to called upon God.” (Moses
5:8, 16.) In our day we are
instructed: “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you.” (D&C
4:7.) Home teachers are appointed in
the Church to “visit the house of each member, and
exhort them to pray vocally and in secret.” (D&C
20:47.) And speaking by way of
“commandment” to his latter-day people, the Lord says:
“He that observeth not his
prayers
before the Lord in the season thereof, let him be had in
remembrance before the judge of my people.” (D&C
68:33.)
b. Temporal and spiritual blessings follow proper
prayer.
As all the revelations show, the portals of heaven
swing wide open to those who pray in faith; the Lord
rains down righteousness upon them; they are preserved
in perilous circumstances; the earth yields her fruits
to them; and the joys of the gospel dwell in their
hearts.
c.
Prayer is essential to salvation. No
accountable person ever has or ever will gain celestial
rest unless he learns to communicate with the Master of
that realm. And, “how knoweth a man the master whom he
has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is
far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” (Mosiah
5:13.)
3. Pray to the Father.
We are commanded to pray to the Father (Elohim) in the
name of the Son (Jehovah). The revelations are perfectly
clear on this. “Ye must always pray unto the Father in
my name,” the Lord Jesus said to the Nephites. (3
Ne. 18:19.) And yet there is an
amazing mass of false doctrine and false practice in the
churches of Christendom and occasionally even among the
true saints.
There are those who pray to so-called saints and plead
with them to intercede with Christ on their behalf. The
official
prayer books of the various sects have some
prayers
addressed to the Father, others to the Son, and others
to the Holy Spirit, and it is the exception rather than
the rule in some quarters when
prayers
are offered in the name of Christ. There are those who
feel they gain some special relationship with our Lord
by addressing petitions directly to him.
It is true that when we pray to the Father, the answer
comes from the Son, because “there is … one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1
Tim. 2:5.) Joseph Smith, for instance,
asked the Father, in the name of the Son, for answers to
questions, and the answering voice was not that of the
Father but of the Son, because Christ is our advocate,
our intercessor, the God (under the Father) who rules
and regulates this earth.
And it is true that sometimes in his answers, Christ
assumes the prerogative of speaking by divine
investiture of authority as though he were the Father;
that is, he speaks in the first person and uses the name
of the Father because the Father has placed his own name
on the Son. For a full explanation of this see the
official pronouncement, “The Father and The Son: A
Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The
Twelve,” beginning on page 465 of the Articles of
Faith by Elder James E. Talmage.
It is also true that we and all the prophets can with
propriety shout praises to the Lord Jehovah (Christ). We
can properly sing unto his holy name, as in the cry,
“Hallelujah,” which means praise Jah, or praise Jehovah.
But what we must have perfectly clear is that we
always pray to the Father, not the Son, and we
always pray in the name of the Son.
4. Ask for Temporal and Spiritual Blessings.
We are entitled and expected to pray for all things
properly needed whether temporal or spiritual. We do not
have the right of unlimited petition; our requests must
be based on righteousness. “Ye ask, and receive not,
because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
lusts.” (James
4:3.)
Amulek speaks of crops and herds, of fields and flocks,
as well as of mercy and salvation, when he lists those
things for which we should pray. (See
Alma 34:17–29.)
The Lord’s
Prayer speaks of “our daily bread” (see
Matt. 6:11), and
James urges us to ask for wisdom (see
James 1:5),
which in principle means we should seek all of the
attributes of godliness. Our revelation says, “Ye are
commanded in all things to ask of God.” (D&C
46:7.) Nephi says, “Ye must not
perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place
ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ,
that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that
thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2
Ne. 32:9.) And the Lord’s promise to
all the faithful is: “If thou shalt ask, thou shalt
receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon
knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and
peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which
bringeth life eternal.” (D&C
42:61.)
It is clear that we should pray for all that in wisdom
and righteousness we should have. Certainly we should
seek for a testimony, for revelations, for all of the
gifts of the Spirit, including the fulfillment of the
promise in Doctrine and Covenants 93:1
[D&C
93:1] of seeing the face of the
Lord. But above all our other petitions, we should plead
for the companionship of the Holy Ghost in this life and
for eternal life in the world to come. When the Nephite
Twelve “did pray for that which they most desired,” the
Book of Mormon account records, “they desired that the
Holy Ghost should be given unto them.” (3
Ne. 19:9.) The greatest gift a man can
receive in this life is the gift of the Holy Ghost, even
as the greatest gift he can gain in eternity is eternal
life.
5. Pray for Others.
Our prayers
are neither selfish nor self-centered. We seek the
spiritual well-being of all men. Some of our
prayers
are for the benefit and blessing of the Saints alone,
others are for the enlightenment and benefit of all our
Father’s children. “I pray not for the world,” Jesus
said in his great intercessory
prayer,
“but for them which thou hast given me.” (John
17:9.) But he also commanded: “Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you.” (Matt.
5:44.)
And so, just as Christ “is the Saviour of all men,
specially of those that believe” (1
Tim. 4:10), so we pray for all men,
but especially for ourselves, our families, the saints
in general, and those who seek to believe and know the
truth. Of especial concern to us are the sick who belong
to the household of faith and those who are
investigating the restored gospel. “Pray one for
another, that ye may be healed,” James says, with
reference to church members, for “the effectual fervent
prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.” (James
5:16.) And as to those who attend our
meetings and who seek to learn the truth, the Lord Jesus
says: “Ye shall pray for them unto the Father, in my
name,” in the hope that they will repent and be
baptized. (3
Ne. 18:23. See also
3 Ne. 18:30.)
6. When and Where to Pray.
“Pray always.” (See
2 Ne. 32:9.) So
it is written—meaning: Pray regularly, consistently, day
in and day out; and also, live with the spirit of
prayer
always in your heart, so that your thoughts, words, and
acts are always such as will please Him who is Eternal.
Amulek speaks of praying “both morning, mid-day, and
evening,” and says we should pour out our souls to the
Lord in our closets, in our secret places, and in the
wilderness. (See
Alma 34:17–29.)
Jesus commanded both personal and family
prayer:
“Watch and pray always,” he said; and also, “Pray in
your families unto the Father, always in my name, that
your wives and your children may be blessed.” (3
Ne. 18:15, 21.)
The practice of the Church in our day is to have family
prayer
twice daily, plus our daily personal
prayers,
plus a blessing on our food at meal times (except in
those public or other circumstances where it would be
ostentatious or inappropriate to do so), plus proper
prayers
in our meetings.
7. How to Pray.
Always address the Father; give thanks for your
blessings; petition him for just and proper needs; and
do it in the name of Jesus Christ.
As occasion and circumstances require and permit,
confess your sins; counsel with the Lord relative to
your personal problems; praise him for his goodness and
grace; and utter such expressions of worship and
doctrine as will bring you to a state of oneness with
Him whom you worship.
Two much overlooked, underworked, and greatly needed
guidelines for approved
prayer
are:
a. Pray earnestly, sincerely, with real intent, and
with all the energy and strength of your soul. Mere
words do not suffice. Vain repetitions are not enough.
Literary excellence is of little worth. Indeed, true
eloquence is not in excellency of language (although
this should be sought for), but in the feeling that
accompanies the words, however poorly they are chosen or
phrased. Mormon said: “Pray unto the Father with all the
energy of heart.” (Moro.
7:48.) Also, it is “counted evil unto
a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of
heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God
receiveth none such.” (Moro.
7:9.)
b. Pray by the power of the Holy Ghost. This is
the supreme and ultimate achievement in
prayer.
The promise is: “The Spirit shall be given unto you by
the prayer
of faith” (D&C
42:14), “and if ye are purified and
cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever you will
in the name of Jesus and it shall be done” (D&C
50:29). Of the coming millennial era,
when
prayers shall be perfected, the scripture says:
“And in that day whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall
be given unto him.” (D&C
101:27.)
8. Use Both Agency and Prayer.
It is not, never has been, and never will be the design
and purpose of the Lord—however much we seek him in
prayer—to
answer all our problems and concerns without struggle
and effort on our part. This mortality is a probationary
estate. In it we have our agency. We are being tested to
see how we will respond in various situations; how we
will decide issues; what course we will pursue while we
are here walking, not by sight, but by faith. Hence, we
are to solve our own problems and then to counsel with
the Lord in
prayer and receive a spiritual confirmation that
our decisions are correct.
As he set forth in his work of translating the Book of
Mormon, Joseph Smith did not simply ask the Lord what
the characters on the plates meant, rather he was
required to study the matter out in his mind, make a
decision of his own, and then ask the Lord if his
conclusions were correct. (See
D&C 8 and
D&C 9.) So it is
with us in all that we are called upon to do.
Prayer
and works go together. If and when we have done all we
can, then in consultation with the Lord, through mighty
and effectual
prayer,
we have power to come up with the right conclusions.
9. Follow the Formalities of Prayer.
These (though many) are simple and easy and contribute
to the spirit of worship that attends sincere and
effectual
prayers. Our Father is glorified and exalted; he
is an omnipotent being. We are as the dust of the earth
in comparison, and yet we are his children with access,
through
prayer, to his presence. Any act of obeisance
which gets us in the proper frame of mind when we pray
is all to the good.
We seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our
prayers.
We ponder the solemnities of eternity in our hearts. We
approach Deity in the spirit of awe, reverence, and
worship. We speak in hushed and solemn tones. We listen
for his answer. We are at our best in
prayer.
We are in the divine presence.
Almost by instinct, therefore, we do such things as bow
our heads and close our eyes; fold our arms, or kneel,
or fall on our faces. We use the sacred language of
prayer
(that of the King James Version of the Bible—thee, thou,
thine, not you and your). And we say Amen when others
pray, thus making their utterances ours, their
prayers
our prayers.
10. Live as You Pray.
There is an old saying to this effect: “If you can’t
pray about a thing, don’t do it,” which is intended to
tie our
prayers and acts together. And true it is that
our deeds, in large measure, are children of our
prayers.
Having prayed, we act; our proper petitions have the
effect of charting a righteous course of conduct for us.
The boy that prays (earnestly and devoutly and in faith)
that he may go on a mission, will then prepare himself
for his mission, and in fact receives his call to
service. The young people who pray always, in faith, to
marry in the temple, and then act accordingly, are never
satisfied with worldly marriage. So intertwined are
prayer
and works that having recited the law of
prayer
in detail, Amulek then concludes:
“After ye have done all these things, if ye turn away
the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and
afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to
those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any
of these things, behold, your
prayer
is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as
hypocrites who do deny the faith.” (Alma
34:28.)
We have now spoken, briefly and in imperfect fashion, of
prayer
and some of the great and eternal principles which
attend it. There remains now but one thing more—to
testify that these doctrines are sound and that
prayer
is a living reality which leads to eternal life.
Prayer
may be gibberish and nonsense to the carnal mind; but to
the saints of God it is the avenue of communications
with the Unseen.
To the unbelieving and rebellious it may seem as an act
of senseless piety born of mental instability; but to
those who have tasted its fruits it becomes an anchor to
the soul through all the storms of life.
Prayer
is of God—not the vain repetitions of the heathen, not
the rhetoric of the
prayer
books, not the insincere lispings of lustful men—but
that prayer
which is born of knowledge, which is nurtured by faith
in Christ, which is offered in spirit and in truth.
Prayer
opens the door to peace in this life and eternal life in
the world to come.
Prayer
is essential to salvation. Unless and until we make it a
living part of us so that we speak to our Father and
have his voice answer, by the power of his Spirit, we
are yet in our sins.
Oh, thou by whom
we come to God,
Of all these things I testify, and pray to the Father in
the name of the Son, that all of the Latter-day Saints,
as well as all those in the world who will join with
them, may—through
prayer
and that righteous living which results therefrom—gain
peace and joy here and an eternal fullness of all good
things hereafter. Even so. Amen.
© 2005 Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
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