(Matt 11:29)
As a
Little Child
by Marjorie Meyer
In the following selection from Luke, chapter 11, we see the Savior teaching his disciples how to pray. Notice that the entire Lord's Prayer, as we know it, is not completed in this passage (see Matthew 6). What is interesting about this passage is that the Lord gives several very pointed examples of how mortals may or may not heed our petitions, but he assures us that our Father in heaven always will always respond to our earnest pleadings, no matter what our circumstance.
AND it came to pass,
that, as he was
praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his
disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that
is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but
deliver us from evil.
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend,
and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend,
lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I
have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not:
the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him,
because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he
will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a
fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke11:1 - 13)
| The Lord's Prayer is so called because it was taught by our Lord to his disciples. Matthew (Matt. 6: 9-13) includes it in the Sermon on the Mount, while Luke (Luke 11: 1-5) tells us that it was given by our Lord in answer to a request from one of his disciples. There are some small differences in the form in which the two disciples have recorded the prayer; these may be accounted for by supposing that they themselves did not always use exactly the same words in saying the prayer. A slightly different rendition is found in 3 Ne. 13: 9-13; and further variations are to be seen in JST Matthew 6: 9-15. (Bible Dictionary) |
"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."
How do we teach a child to pray? Do we teach them that God is listening and loves them, and to pour out their hearts openly to him? Our Father is not distant, he is intimate and personal. Can we picture a mother or father with their little child, dressed in pajamas, kneeling at the end of the day, arm in arm, to petition the Lord for a safe journey into the night, and to ask his blessing on the family? What more pure prayer is there than the pleas of a child? No, it does not matter what we are wearing, or if we are dusty from the labors of the day, or if we are in our extremity. The Lord waits for us, and accepts our offering -- we are the best that we have to offer the Lord. Let us offer ourselves to him every day. Can we truly take his yoke upon us?
What does it mean that prayer is "The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near"? How simple is prayer -- how we sometimes would like to complicate it. Our Father is constantly calling to us with his heart, and does not withhold his love and responsiveness to our earnest pleas! He takes us AS WE ARE IN THE MOMENT, and with a Father's tender care helps us to "tend our garden" of personal burdens. His love and acceptance are ours if we will claim and believe in it.
There really is not a more important "touchstone" of our inner religious lives than the quality and spiritual nature of our prayers. When you pray, do you stop, meditate, and wait to feel the quiet and comforting Spirit of the Lord in reply? Do you go forth, shielded by his love and abiding assurance? He is with us in the small and seemingly insignificant details of our lives. We depend on him for so much. He is our Master, and our Exemplar, and our advocate with the Father.
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We will never fully be "who we really should be" while in this life, thus our great need for the grace of the Lord, to bridge us from our mortal state to his divine presence. |
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SIMPLICITY GODLY SINCERITY GRACE |
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Prayer is the soul’s
sincere desire,
Unuttered or
expressed;
The motion of
a hidden fire
That trembles
in the breast.
Prayer is the
burden of a sigh,
The falling
of a tear
The upward
glancing of an eye,
When none but
God is near.
Prayer is the
simplest form of speech
That infant
lips can try;
Prayer, the
sublimest strains
That reach
The Majesty on high.
Prayer is the
Christian’s vital breath,
The
Christian’s native air,
His watchword
at the gates of death;
He enters Heav’n
with prayer.
Prayer is the
contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning
from his ways,
While angels
in their songs rejoice
And cry,
“Behold, he prays!”
The saints in
prayer appear as one
In word, in
deed, and mind,
While with
the Father and the Son
Sweet
fellowship they find.
No prayer is
made by man alone
The Holy
Spirit pleads,
And Jesus, on
th’eternal throne,
For sinners
intercedes.
O Thou by
Whom we come to God,
The Life, the
Truth, the Way,
The path of
prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach
us how to pray.
Edward Bickersteth, who wanted them for his book Treatise on Prayer.
Montgomery called this “the most attractive hymn I ever wrote.”
And
he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that
they were
righteous, and despised others:
Two men
went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the
other a
publican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
thee, that I am not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to
me a sinner. I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other: for
every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. And they
brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but
when his
disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus
called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to
come unto me, and
forbid them not: for of such is the
kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto
you, Whosoever shall not receive the
kingdom of God as
a
little child shall in no wise enter therein. (Luke
18:9-14)
Just
as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood
was shed for me,
And that Thou
bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
and waiting not
To rid my
soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose
blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
though tossed about
With many a
conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and
fears within, without,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
poor, wretched, blind;
Sight,
riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I
need in Thee to find,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome,
pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy
promise I believe,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
Thy love unknown
Hath broken
every barrier down;
Now, to be
Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come.
Just as I am,
of that free love
The breadth,
length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a
season, then above,
O Lamb of
God, I come, I come!
Words by Charlotte Elliott
of London, and there met the eminent minister, César Malan. While
seated at supper, the minister said he hoped that she was a Christian.
She took offense at this, and replied that she would rather not discuss
that question. Dr. Malan said that he was sorry if had offended her,
that he always liked to speak a word for his Master, and that he hoped
that the young lady would some day become a worker for Christ. When they
met again at the home of a mutual friend, three weeks later, Miss
Elliott told the minister that ever since he had spoken to her she had
been trying to find her Saviour, and that she now wished him to tell her
how to come to Christ. “Just come to him as you are,” Dr. Malan said. This
she did, and went away rejoicing. Shortly afterward she wrote the hymn,
Just As I Am.
In this passage, our Lord reminds us to take one day at a time, and that we must choose of highest priority those things that are most important, and by so doing, he gently instructs us on our own great worth, that we might remember his constant love and concern for our well-being.
Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than
meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which
to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or,
What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto
you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof.
(Matthew 6:19-34)
O Lord, thou hast said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you." Grant, we beg of thee, to us who ask it, the gift of thy most divine love, that we may ever love thee with our whole heart, in word and deed, and never cease praising thee.
Give us, O Lord, a lasting love of thy Holy Name, for thee, who live and are King for ever and ever, never fail to govern those whom thou hast solidly established in thy love. Amen.
MY little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John. 2: 1)
For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens. (Moro. 7: 28)
Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom. (D&C 29: 5)
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. (Bible Dictionary)
Lord Jesus, Let Me Know Myself
Written by St. Augustine (b. 354 - d. 430)
Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know Thee,
And desire nothing save only Thee.
Let me disavow myself and love Thee.
Let me do everything for the sake of Thee.
Let me humble myself and exalt Thee.
Let me think of nothing except Thee.
Let me die to myself and live in Thee.
Let me accept whatever happens as from Thee.
Let me banish self and follow Thee,
And ever desire to follow Thee.
Let me fly from myself and take refuge in Thee,
That I may deserve to be defended by Thee.
Let me fear for myself, let me fear Thee,
And let me be among those who are chosen by Thee.
Let me distrust myself and put my trust in Thee.
Let me be willing to obey for the sake of Thee.
Let me cling to nothing save only to Thee,
And let me be poor because of Thee.
Look upon me, that I may love Thee.
Call me that I may see Thee,
And for ever enjoy Thee. Amen.Latin text:
Domine Iesu, Noverim me
Domine Iesu, noverim me, noverim te,
Nec aliquid cupiam nisi te.
Oderim me et amem te.
Omnia agam propter te.
Humilem me, exaltem te.
Nihil cogitem nisi te.
Mortificem me et vivam in te.
Quaecumque eveniant accipiam a te.
Persequar me, sequar te,
Semerque optem sequi te.
Fugiam me, confugiam ad te,
Ut merear defendi a te.
Timeam mihi, timeam te,
Et sim inter electos a te.
Diffidam mihi, fidam in te.
Obedire velim propter te.
Ad nihil afficiar nisi ad te,
Et pauper sim propter te.
Aspice me, ut diligam te.
Voca me, ut videam te,
Et in aeternum fruar te. Amen.
Original files by Michael Martin