Relief Society Lesson -- The Privilege of Prayer

Here are the overheads and quotes from my Relief Society lesson today.
The Privilege of Prayer
J. Devn Cornish
Of the Seventy
October 2011 Gen. Conference

Prayer is one of the most precious gifts of God to man.

God our Father … is a holy person who … has a face and hands and a glorious immortal body. He is real, He knows each of us individually, and He loves us, every one. He wants to bless us.

Matthew 7:9-11

Heavenly Father loves us so much that the things that are important to us become important to Him, just because He loves us.

Please believe how very much your loving Heavenly Father wants to bless you. But because He will not infringe upon our agency, we must ask for His help. This is generally done through prayer.

1. It is our privilege to approach our Father directly. We do not pray to any other being.

2. Reverencing God and giving heartfelt and specific thanks is one of the keys to effective prayer.

3. We freely acknowledge our dependence on the Lord and express our desire to do His will, even if it is not the same as our will.

4. We ask for those things we want from the Lord. Honesty is essential in requesting things from God.

5. An essential and sometimes forgotten part of personal prayer is repentance.

6. The Savior made a clear connection between being forgiven of our sins and forgiving others who have wronged us.

7. Do not forget to ask the Lord to protect and be with you.

8. Jesus concluded this prayer by praising God again and expressing His reverence for and submission to the Father.

We must not only say our prayers; we must also live them.

Sometimes we seem to get no answer to our sincere and striving prayers. It takes faith to remember that the Lord answers in His time and in His way so as to best bless us.

Please do not be discouraged if this does not work for you all at once. Like learning a foreign language, it takes practice and effort.

The following are a few excerpts from a general conference talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

The Special Language of Prayer
-Elder Dallin H. Oaks April 1993 Gen. conference

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches its members to use special language in addressing prayers to our Father in Heaven.

When we go to worship in a temple or a church, we put aside our working clothes and dress ourselves in something better. This change of clothing is a mark of respect. Similarly, when we address our Heavenly Father, we should put aside our working words and clothe our prayers in special language of reverence and respect. In offering prayers, members of our Church do not address our Heavenly Father with the same words we use in speaking to a fellow worker, to an employer, or to a merchant in the marketplace. We use special words that have been sanctified by use in inspired communications, words that have been recommended to us and modeled for us by those we sustain as prophets and inspired teachers.
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) said, “In all our prayers, it is well to use the pronouns thee, thou, thy, and thine instead of you, your, and yours inasmuch as they have come to indicate respect.”1 Numerous other Church leaders have given the same counsel.2

In our day the words thee, thou, thy, and thine are suitable for the language of prayer, not because of how they were used anciently, but because they are currently obsolete in common English discourse. Being unused in everyday communications, they are now available as a distinctive form of address in English, appropriate to symbolize respect, closeness, and reverence for the one being addressed.

I am sure that our Heavenly Father, who loves all of His children, hears and answers all prayers, however phrased. If He is offended in connection with prayers, it is likely to be by their absence, not their wording.

When one of our daughters was about three years old, she did something that always delighted her parents. When we called her name, she would usually answer by saying, “Here me is.” This childish reply was among the sweetest things her parents heard. But when she was grown, we expected her to use appropriate language when she spoke, and of course she did. As the Apostle Paul said, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11).

Those who wish to show respect will take the time to learn the special language of prayer.