Call out to Him

Call out to Him
Jordan Falslev

16 June 2019

Smithfield YSA 1st Ward


Good morning Brothers and Sisters!


It feels good to be back here in this building with you. I attended this Ward for about eight months around two and a half years ago. 



…


Today I would like to talk to you about prayer.

Our invitation to pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus Christ is the single most mentioned commandment in all recorded scripture and it is the most basic form of personal worship.

Our personal prayers show our spiritual strength and are indicators of our spiritual well-being. I observed as a missionary that listening to other’s prayers reveal much about his or her relationship with God.

What would listening to your personal prayers reveal about you and your relationship with Heavenly Father?

When we pray, we speak with God, the Eternal Father of our spirits. He loves each of us perfectly and is full of grace and mercy. He knows everything about us. He knows what we need, even when we can see only what we want. He has infinite power and capacity to support and guide us. He is always willing to forgive us and to help us in all things.

Loneliness, worry, and uncertainty. These are just some of the feelings that are part of the challenges of the human adventure—things like aging, relationships, natural disasters, lack of acceptance, questions about God, and providing for the needs of family and ourselves.


They are challenges bigger than us. Bigger than the information we can get from the internet. Bigger than the support we can get from people and programs. They are the obstacles for which God promised, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7) 

We may not find that our difficulties are taken away, but through prayer we learn to walk through our trials with God and, line upon line, find greater peace, hope, and understanding.

Jesus taught us that we should look to God each day for the direction and help we need in that particular day. But do we?


Like a popular hymn asks:
Ere you left your room this morning,
Did you think to pray?
In the name of Christ, our Savior,
Did you sue for loving favor
As a shield today?


Prayer can fuel our daily activities as a shield from temptation, a rest from the weariness of anxiety and doubt, and a vehicle to “change our night into day” as His light and love more fully fill our hearts.


Author C. S. Lewis described it this way: “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other."

Through prayer, God will fuel our relationships, our jobs, our decisions, our testimonies, our feelings, and our goals. His fuel may come in such forms as wisdom, eternal perspective, courage, or peace. And His fuel not only helps us with our problems, it helps us to be our best selves, to repent, improve, and eventually reach ‘the measure of our creation’.

Prayer reminds us that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father who grants us personal access to Him, do we actually grasp the amazingness of that?




As President Henry B. Eyring said: “It is not a matter so much of which words to use... It is an approach to your Heavenly Father with the intent to be recognized by Him personally. He is the God above all, the Father of all, and yet willing to give undivided attention to one of His children.”


An example of this is when the Prophet Joseph Smith, while in Liberty Jail, pleaded in desperate prayer, “O God, where art thou?” A loving Father replied, “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment.” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1,7)


That personal acknowledgment likely gave Joseph needed fuel to endure a little longer.

From Joseph Smith to Moses and Mary the mother of Jesus, there are numerous examples in the scriptures of God using His voice or the voice of His servants to speak to His children by name. Each communication was personal. Each communication was special. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, those personal communications continue still. They can fuel our remembrance that each of us has a personal relationship with God.


President Gordon B. Hinckley reminded us of in a few short sentences:

You are in very deed a child of God. He is your Eternal Father.
He loves you.
You can go to Him in prayer.
He has invited you to do so.
What a wonderful thing this is.
He is the greatest of All.
He is the Creator and Governor of the universe.
And yet He will listen to your prayers.

It is that personal relationship with God that gives us the strength we need to weather the storms of life. Every joy is a blessing, and every trial is an invitation to draw closer to Him and rely on His grace as we move forward.


With God, through prayer, all things are possible, and without prayer we lack the power to progress. Prayer is the vehicle to progression. As Elder Kevin W. Pearson taught: “Without prayer, there is no possible return to the Father. Without prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and the cleansing power of the Atonement are unattainable. Without prayer, sufficient faith to understand and keep the commandments is impossible. Without prayer, the necessary spiritual power to avoid temptation and overcome trials and adversity would be unavailable.”

What wouldn’t you know, where would you be, who would you be, without prayer?

How often do we rely solely on what we know, what we’ve learned, and what we think we can do on our own? How often do we try to do everything by ourselves? How often do we essentially say, “I don’t need you!” when we choose not to pray to God? To be honest, it’s a problem. It’s been my personal Achilles heel that I’ve been trying to overcome off and on, throughout my life. I’m busy. I’m tired. Things seem to be okay in my life. So, why pray? Why every morning? Why every night? Does it even matter?

When we understand that we are children of God and that He is our loving Father, just like any other family relationship, prayer absolutely has a purpose.

It’s a means of connection for us to share our highs and lows with our Father. It’s how we talk to Him. It’s how we engage in good communication. God may be all-knowing, but he wants to hear about our lives from our perspectives. He wants us to articulate our joys, our sorrows, our questions, our worries, things only we can express. He wants us to talk to Him. He knows where our hearts are and wants us to know His.


I love this thought in the Bible Dictionary:
“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.”


Yes, prayer is the channel by which God can hear our desires and grant us promised blessings. But I love this description that prayer is also how our will and the will of the Father come together. Prayer is a way that we can come to understand our purpose in this life and God’s plan for us. Through prayer, the answers we receive, and our willingness to act on them, we change. Our desires change. And day by day we find we’ve become a little more like the loving Father we’ve come to know and love over the course of consistent, meaningful prayers.

“Prayer is one of the most precious gifts of God to man,” said Elder J. Devn Cornish. And he’s right.
Prayer is a way in which we can feel the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a way we can silence the world and dial in heaven. Prayer is the way we use the power to act in God’s name here on earth. Prayer is the method in which God’s miracles happen in our lives. Prayer is most definitely a gift.

When you think about it, God didn’t have to give us all of that. He could have left us on our own here on this earth to figure things out on our own and in our own way. But He didn’t. Because He loves us, He has blessed us with the gift to pray to Him whenever we want, and that’s a privilege we should never take for granted.


As told in the Bible, Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den because he was caught “kneeled upon his knees three times a day” offering up prayers to God even though the king had signed a decree forbidding it.


He was willing to die for the privilege to pray.


Today, we hear stories around the world of believers who are persecuted, imprisoned, even killed because of their beliefs.


They are willing to die for the privilege to pray.

To go before Deity, to literally approach the throne of God in prayer, is a privilege, a freedom that isn’t always granted, and a practice we can all appreciate and take advantage of more in our lives.

We see it every day across social media—posts like “request for prayers,” “pray for my son,” “sending love and prayers your way.” We see these blanket invitations to pray, blasted across social networks that reach millions. Why? Because we believe there is power in prayer.


But it takes more than just words for that power to take root. It takes work. It takes faith in action.
Elder Cornish taught further, “We must not imagine that any kind of prayer, no matter how sincere, will be very effective if all we do is to say the prayer. We must not only say our prayers; we must also live them. The Lord is much more pleased with the person who prays and then goes to work than with the person who only prays. Much like medicine, prayer works only when we use it as directed.”

God, in His loving grace and mercy, wants to bless us with everything He has. He wants us to witness miracles in our lives. He wants us to make connections with heaven. And that only comes as we let go of what we think we can do on our own and rely more heavily on what He can do for us every day.

Prayer provides that heavenly lift in our lives to protect us from the rough waters of life and give us the confidence and float we need to sail through the calm waters as well. We never know when the seas will change. We never know when things will get deep, when we’ll have to stretch and gasp and plead for heaven’s help to avoid sinking. And that’s why we communicate with God. Prayer is like floaties. Through it, God provides the lift we need, the power we can’t always see, and the peace that comes in knowing God has a plan for us and personal growth is key.




The Bible Dictionary says: “We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us. (John 15:7) We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind.” 


What are those things it is possible for God to grant? How can we make sure our wishes are the wishes of Christ?


Does this mean we should never ask for circumstantial things that we want? No way! Does this mean God will never answer our prayers if we just ask for things we want? Certainly not! I know God loves every one of us and cares deeply about our wants. I think He delights in giving us even those little things we ask for sometimes. Like any good father, He knows how to give us good gifts. But above all, He wants what is best for us, and what is best for us eternally does not always include the circumstances we desperately hope for.


So how do we pray for the things we want while accepting God’s will and His desires for us?
It is simply this—whenever you ask for something you want and you’re not totally sure if it’s something God wants for you, tack on the phrase “but if not” and then add something you’re sure God would want for you.

For example: “God, please help me get some sleep tonight, but if not, help me to have enough energy to be pleasant and hardworking anyway.” “God, please bless that my brother will get over this sickness and feel better, but if not, help us to trust in Thee and be patient with each other.” “God, please bless that I will be included in my group of friends, but if not, even if I feel excluded, help me to be kind and generous.” 


Don’t pray for your circumstances to change, but that you in your circumstances may be changed.


Elder Brook P. Hales, recently spoke in General Conference sharing experiences of answers to prayer. He reminds us that the prayers of others are often answered through us ministering to them. Also, that, “sometimes are prayers are answered quickly with the outcome we hoped for. Sometimes our prayers are not answered in the way we hoped for, yet with time we learn that God had greater blessings prepared for us than we initially anticipated. And sometimes our righteous petitions to God will not be granted in this life.”


Prayer is a powerful thing. It’s how we show God our love for Him, and how we express our love to God and feel His love for us. It’s how we receive peace and comfort in our lives, as well as answers to the big and small questions we have. We must sincerely pray to our Heavenly Father, and we must pray often.


I have absolute evidence in my own life that God is our loving Heavenly Father and does in fact hear and answer our prayers. Prayer has a purpose. Prayer is a privilege. And prayer is powerful. I’ve seen too many instances in my life to deny that. So, in this world filled with so much uncertainty, fear, and darkness, a daily connection with heaven brings hope, light, and love. At least for me it does. And that’s why as I prepare to head out into the crazy world each day, as I endure throughout the day, and as I end my day, I commune with my Heavenly Father.


My prayer today is that each us of will have a greater desire to commune with our Heavenly Father on a daily basis, to build that relationship with Him, so when that day arrives when we stand at His feet, we will recognize Him and will know Him at a very personal level, and He will welcome us home into His Eternal Abode.