It was time to talk about Enos in Sunday school. His example of prayer is a classic and from it comes a profound meaning for this so important act in life.
(If you want to know who Enos is and about his family and history, you may want to find out here > http://mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/the-book-of-mormon or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enos_%28Book_of_Mormon%29)
Among other things, Enos teaches us by example of four great principles associated with powerful prayer focused on a particular need. Interestingly enough, all of them can be written beginning with the letter “A”.
1. ALONE:
Enos made his first great petition while he was hunting. In the course of his pursuit of beasts, he had a deep and rich experience and stopped hunting and started praying. His prayer, at least in terms of its location, was much like the prayer of Joseph in the Sacred Grove. Joseph said, “After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.” (JS–H 1:15) Amulek taught, “But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.” (Alma 34:26) President Kimball said “We, too, ought to find, where possible, a room, a corner, a closet, a place where we can “retire” to “pray vocally” in secret.” (Ensign, Oct. 1981, p. 4)
2. ALOUD:
Enos knelt before his maker and “cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication. . . . I did raise my voice high that it reached the heavens” (Enos 1:4) Nephi said it this way: “I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, My God . . .” (2 Nephi 4:35.)Nearly one hundred times in the Book of Mormon some form of the verb "to cry" is used to denote prayer. A "cry" is usually vocal. Amulek indicates this in his stirring sermon on prayer when he counsels: "And when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually." (Alma 34:27, emphasis added.) In other words, when we do not or cannot pray vocally, then we should pray in our hearts. (Ted Gibbons, Put off Thy Shoes, p. 68)
President Spencer W. Kimball said: We recall the many times the Lord instructs us to pray vocally. "And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private. (Doctrine and Covenants 19:28.) So central is this to our prayers and personal religious life that the Lord instructed the priesthood brethren to "visit the house of each member, exhorting them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties. (Ensign, October 1981, p. 2.)
3. A LOT:
Not all answers come at the first petition. Our repeated requests are not an effort to change the Lord but to change ourselves. Read the seventh paragraph in the entry under Prayer in the Bible Dictionary. We are not trying to get the Lord ready to answer our prayer, but to get ourselves ready to receive the answer he wants to give us. “All the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.” (Enos 1:4)
Speaking of this experience of Enos, Pres. Harold B. Lee said,“I once read that scripture to a woman who laughed and said, "Imagine anybody praying all night and all day." I replied, "My dear sister, I hope you never have to come to a time where you have a problem so great that you have to so humble yourself. I have; I have prayed all day and all night and all day the next day and all night the next night, not always on my knees but praying constantly for a blessing that I needed most. (The Improvement Era, October 1966, p. 898.)
Boyd K. Packer said, Sometimes you may struggle with a problem and not get an answer. What could be wrong? It may be that you are not doing anything wrong. It may be that you have not done the right things long enough. Remember, you cannot force spiritual things.Sometimes we are confused simply because we won't take no for an answer. (Ensign, November 1979, p. 21.)
4. ANSWER:
After we have prepared ourselves and done “the right thing long enough,” the answers will come: “And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.” (Enos 1:5,6) I think we must have a great faith in the willingness of the Lord to speak to us. Joseph Smith said, “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another . . .” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345)
*** Taken from the lessons of Ted L. Gibbons of LDSLiving.com
No comments:
Post a Comment