All my life, I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, one of the most difficult things for me in following the teachings of the Church has been daily prayer. I have never understood this difficulty myself – the best part, or, more accurately, parts of my day should be when I get to find a private place, kneel, bow my head, fold my arms, and talk one-on-one with my Heavenly Father! However, ever since I can remember learning to pray on my own, I have struggled to pray on my own at all. I converse with Heavenly Father in my heart throughout the day, consulting Him and the Holy Ghost who is my guide and comforter, but I fight with myself constantly to set aside time during the day to go pray aloud on my own. I ask myself often: WHY is this?
Through prayer we commune with our Heavenly Father and can receive His help.
Praying to Heavenly Father is a commandment in the Church. We are told to pray every morning and night and are strongly encouraged to pray over every meal. We can and should pray to God at any time during the day in addition to these times whenever we need Him, wish to thank Him, or for any other reason. I tell myself often that these are not difficult instructions. Besides, I get an amazing feeling in my heart whenever I pray. I feel like my Heavenly Father is right there in front of me, conversing with me. Besides being prone to terrible forgetfulness, I’ve therefore come to realize that perhaps my main hang-up when it comes to prayer is that I am sometimes ashamed to enter into conversations with my Heavenly Father. I often don’t feel worthy to speak to Him. This is, of course, a very erroneous way of thinking, but it is truly how I feel, and that is because I – being human, and therefore being very imperfect – am a sinner. I make mistakes, big and small, every day. In prayer, in addition to asking Heavenly Father for guidance, blessings, and protection, and expressing gratitude to Him for all He has done for us, it is important to ask forgiveness for our sins and for the strength to resist further temptation to ever commit those sins again. Clearly, then, it is extremely important that I fight the impulse to sort of hide from my Heavenly Father when I know that I have done something wrong. This is all part of what is called the “repentance process,” but I will focus on the prayerful part of this process.
I have found much strength and guidance in the example of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, especially in the book of Second Nephi. In chapter four of this book, Nephi pours his soul out to God in what is generally known as “Nephi’s Pslam,” for the first time allowing us to catch a glimpse of Nephi beyond his outward appearance of constant, unerring faith, endurance, strength, and spirituality. Nephi reveals that he finds himself to be extremely imperfect and unworthy, and there is one verse that strikes a deep chord within me when I think of myself and the need for repentance, and why I avoid my Heavenly Father when I have sinned: “O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?” This verse thirty-one of chapter four, and iterates a truly amazing prayer for strength to avoid temptation, as well as a heartfelt plea for God to forgive Nephi for his sins.
I know for a surety that God does indeed forgive us for our sins when we are humble and pray to Him with all the sincerity we have. I have asked for His forgiveness before, and I have received it – it is an incredible feeling, like walking on air! Heavenly Father wants us to return to live with Him in heaven, and through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ, we can do just that by repenting of the sins Christ has already suffered for us. Because I know this, I also know that I have nothing to fear of prayer. All I have to do is look at Nephi and see how truly flawed he finds himself to be. I can also see all the strength and faith he gains from praying intimately to God. I know that if we follow this example, we can be forgiven of our sins, and we can converse freely and happily forever with our Father who art in heaven. I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
This article was written by Andrea V., a student at Brigham Young University and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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