Comments on: President Eyring: Prayer With the Intent to Obey http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/ Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:52:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Michelle http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21442 Michelle Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:14:16 +0000 http://segullah.org/small-epiphanies/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21442 I have mentioned that he recently came to our Stake Conference. This was his main focus. And I came away with that feeling like "I don't get it." (Back to Justine's recent post...prayer is something else I don't get!) We shouldn't expect that answers to prayers will always be about making life easier. Sometimes the answers (if I am reading him right, it's more like "often") the answers will be hard. They will require sacrifice. The thought I have had as I have heard him repeat this (in numerous places) is that there is stretching growth available to us if we well really approach prayer to seek God's will, not to have Him simply make life easier for us. But the wonder of it all is that life will be richer (maybe even easier?) because we will be doing what the Lord wants us to do, and we can have a greater measure of His Spirit. When we are really willing to put it all on the altar, to pay any price, then we will 'get it.' I'm a wimp. It's a scary (??) notion for me to really go to God in that way. (So I don't really get sacrifice either. The list gets longer the more I think about it.) I also don't trust my own abilities to really know and recognize the answers. Such a process for me. Rather than take up too much more space here, I'll just link to <a href="http://www.bloggerofjared.com/2007/10/01/the-beauty-of-the-basics/#more-441" rel="nofollow">what </a> I wrote after the meetings. Stake Conference was a direct and specific answer to a "pray in faith" kind of prayer I offered after reading Elder Scott's April Conference talk (I've reviewed it close to a half dozen times...there is soooo much there). You would think that after such a clear experience with the blessings of praying like that I would do that all of the time. It's just so easy to get lulled into life thinking that whatever I'm doing is enough. And yet, we are invited to do more, not as a 'you are bad' chastisement but as an invitation to enjoy the blessings of God more fully. I'm a slow learner! I have mentioned that he recently came to our Stake Conference. This was his main focus. And I came away with that feeling like “I don’t get it.” (Back to Justine’s recent post…prayer is something else I don’t get!) We shouldn’t expect that answers to prayers will always be about making life easier. Sometimes the answers (if I am reading him right, it’s more like “often”) the answers will be hard. They will require sacrifice. The thought I have had as I have heard him repeat this (in numerous places) is that there is stretching growth available to us if we well really approach prayer to seek God’s will, not to have Him simply make life easier for us. But the wonder of it all is that life will be richer (maybe even easier?) because we will be doing what the Lord wants us to do, and we can have a greater measure of His Spirit. When we are really willing to put it all on the altar, to pay any price, then we will ‘get it.’

I’m a wimp. It’s a scary (??) notion for me to really go to God in that way. (So I don’t really get sacrifice either. The list gets longer the more I think about it.) I also don’t trust my own abilities to really know and recognize the answers. Such a process for me.

Rather than take up too much more space here, I’ll just link to what I wrote after the meetings. Stake Conference was a direct and specific answer to a “pray in faith” kind of prayer I offered after reading Elder Scott’s April Conference talk (I’ve reviewed it close to a half dozen times…there is soooo much there). You would think that after such a clear experience with the blessings of praying like that I would do that all of the time. It’s just so easy to get lulled into life thinking that whatever I’m doing is enough. And yet, we are invited to do more, not as a ‘you are bad’ chastisement but as an invitation to enjoy the blessings of God more fully. I’m a slow learner!

]]> By: Emily M. http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21435 Emily M. Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:45:49 +0000 http://segullah.org/small-epiphanies/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21435 Thanks, Wendy and Justine. I forgot to put a link to President Eyring's April 2006 talk, in which he says "A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us. I have learned such a prayer is always answered if we ask and ponder with childlike submission, ready to act without delay to perform even the most humble service." It's been good for me to remember this today as well. I was a lot better at this on my mission, when I didn't have my own life's agenda to compete with the Lord's. I need to recapture the way I prayed back then, I think. Thanks, Wendy and Justine. I forgot to put a link to President Eyring’s April 2006 talk, in which he says

“A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us. I have learned such a prayer is always answered if we ask and ponder with childlike submission, ready to act without delay to perform even the most humble service.”

It’s been good for me to remember this today as well. I was a lot better at this on my mission, when I didn’t have my own life’s agenda to compete with the Lord’s. I need to recapture the way I prayed back then, I think.

]]> By: Justine http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21383 Justine Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:47:51 +0000 http://segullah.org/small-epiphanies/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21383 Emily, well now you've gotten me praying all day. You should know you made my day. You really did. Emily, well now you’ve gotten me praying all day. You should know you made my day. You really did.

]]> By: Wendy http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21380 Wendy Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:21:13 +0000 http://segullah.org/small-epiphanies/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21380 Thanks for this, Emily! Very timely. Thanks for this, Emily! Very timely.

]]> By: Justine http://segullah.org/daily-special/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21361 Justine Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:44:18 +0000 http://segullah.org/small-epiphanies/president-eyring-prayer-with-the-intent-to-obey/#comment-21361 I've been thinking about this all morning. This was a wonderful compilation of thoughts from Elder Eyring. Thank you. I'll comment more when I get a minute. I’ve been thinking about this all morning. This was a wonderful compilation of thoughts from Elder Eyring. Thank you. I’ll comment more when I get a minute.

]]>