As I sat and listened to General Conference just a few weeks ago, I felt inspired to re-read the talks, one each week, and share some of my thoughts, quotes, and invitations here on my blog.
I thought about making my own reading schedule, but I was planning to join the Work and Wonder community in their study. So, I will be following their study schedule (for the most part) which you can see here if you want to study with me/us.
These posts will be slightly different than what I generally share, but I feel the need to talk more about Jesus here online, because He is such a large part of my life, that I can’t separate Him from who I am. Each Monday I’ll be sharing some spiritual thoughts.
Watch Ye Therefore, and Pray Always by M. Russell Ballard
As I read this address today, I couldn’t help but remember an experience I had nearly 10 years ago now, when I first knew that God was listening to my prayers. I was struggling and I felt so, so, so alone and in one of my prayers to God before I went to sleep I was begging, and crying, for relief and understanding. In that moment a name of a dear friend came to my mind, but I pushed it out, I was worried about what was happening in my life, why was I thinking about this person?
Then, that night I had a dream about this friend and another, and the next day at school both helped me out of a situation that I was incredibly relieved to be out of, and I realized that thinking their name during my prayer, had been an answer.
Answers to prayers don’t always come as we want them to or how we expect them, but throughout my life, I know that they come.
Prayer will lift us and draw us together as individuals, as families, as a church, and as a world. Prayer will influence scientists and help them toward discoveries of vaccines and medications that will end this pandemic. Prayer will comfort those who have lost a loved one. It will guide us in knowing what to do for our own personal protection.
Life is hard and may continue to grow more challenging in the coming days. One thing that will help us? Prayer. We have been promised peace, answers, comfort and so much more as we pray to God, and as we get up and go to work after we’ve prayed.
Invitation for this week: Make an effort to make your prayers more meaningful. Kneel in prayer, say your prayer out loud, pray for something specific then get up and act on the thoughts and feelings (promptings) that you have. Take time to pray this week.
After we kneel in prayer, we need to get up from our knees and do what we can to help—to help both ourselves and others.
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