Sunday, July 25, 2021

Mighty Prayer

One of my great prayer heroes is the prophet Enos in the Book of Mormon. Enos was a good man raised by a good father. As he grew up in a righteous home, Enos surely said his daily prayers, read the scriptures, and attended worship services. Yet, he felt he was missing something in his life. He wanted to be more than an "active" believer, he wanted to be truly converted. And so, he turned to prayer. But not the simple, standard, run-of-the-mill prayer he was used to.

And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and 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

God heard Enos's mighty prayer and answered it in a direct and inspiring way.

Mighty prayer is powerful prayer. Mighty prayer taps into the power of God to change me in profound ways—ways that I could never accomplish on my own under my own power. 

In mighty prayer, I turn myself, my problems, my weaknesses and my failures over to God. I reach up to put my puny hand in His mighty hand. I stop trying to do it myself, run my own life, achieve my own goals. I admit that I are powerless to accomplish the impossible things God expects of me. 

In mighty prayer I hold nothing back, make no excuses, blame no one but myself. If I can put everything on the altar, including and especially the natural man with all his pride and selfishness and stubbornness and rebellion, and beg and beseech God in genuine sincerity to take it all away and do with me what He will, I am offering a mighty prayer. 

I do not just whip out a mighty prayer in five minutes before I fall asleep at the end of the day or in a brief, rote recital of repetitious 'thanks' and 'pleases' before I rush out the door in the morning. Though God wants to hear from me daily and is pleased with my efforts to communicate with Him, He yearns for mighty prayer to open the door to His real power. 

He is a mighty God who wants to use His might in my behalf. Mighty prayer is the key to unlock God's power in my life. If I want to change, mighty prayer is the mechanism to engage the power I need. God will change me if I cry to Him in mighty prayer.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I would love to hear your thoughts about this week's post. All opinions and points of view are welcome, regardless of the commenter's religion or faith background. Because of the sacred nature of the topic of prayer, all comments will be reviewed before posting them to ensure that offensive, inappropriate, and off-topic comments do not appear on this site.