Turn the Key with Prayer

Before Moses documented his account of the Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and all that followed, he recorded his encounter with God Almighty that gave him the knowledge he wrote about in the book of Gensis. As described in his preface to his first book in the Old Testament, Moses saw God face to face and talked with Him, and God showed Moses the earth and everything about it. 

After this glorious vision, God left Moses to ponder the things he had seen and learned. Seeing an opportunity to catch Moses at a potential moment of weakness, Satan appeared on the scene. The devil commanded Moses to worship him, claiming his own version of divinity. 

Moses instantly saw through Satan's lie and told the deceiver to depart. Undaunted, Satan redoubled his efforts to convince Moses to accept him as the "only begotten." When Moses saw the ferocity of Satan's bogus claim and felt the power of darkness embodied in God's most virulent enemy, the record says:

And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory.
--Moses 1:20

Like Moses, when I need strength to resist or overcome adversity in my life, I can call upon God, who is Strength and who gives strength. It is in my moments of supreme weakness that God can show His supreme power. 

I cannot fight the devil alone without God's power. Because I fight Satan everyday, I need God's strength every day. I receive power when I pray. So, to skip prayer is like forgetting to turn the key in the ignition and then wondering why the car won't go. 

Prayer Unlocks Power

When the prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon began seeing waywardness and wickedness in his son, he turned to prayer to engage God in the struggle for his son's soul. In response to the faith-filled prayers of Alma and the people of the church, the Lord sent an angel to halt Alma Junior on the path to destruction. The young man recorded the words of the heavenly messenger thus:

And again, the angel said: Behold, the Lord hath heard the prayers of his people, and also the prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to convince thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith.
--Mosiah 27:14

Prayers on behalf of others work. They unlock the power of God. They don't necessarily change God's will, but they have an impact. 

Things happen with prayer that might not happen or might happen differently without prayer. I do not understand completely how it works or why it works, but I am convinced by many evidences that prayer for others does indeed work.

In My Distress

Chapter 18 of the book of Psalms is a magnificent testimony of God's strength. King David, having suffered many trials and afflictions in his younger years, speaks with great power in beautiful language of his love for the Lord:

I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
-Psalm 18:1-3

I love these words: strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower. And then, what does he say? I will call upon the Lord, and so I shall be saved. God has unfathomable power, but we have to call upon Him. He won't save me unless I ask.

Then David writes:

In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
-Psalm 18:6

In my distress, I too have called upon the Lord, and He has heard me. When I have been crushed by dark despair, He has lifted me and lightened my way. When I could see no way out of my trials, He walked with me. When I have felt alone, He has come to my side. But only when I asked.

In his Psalm David describes all the ways God has intervened for him with great displays of heavenly power, and then he concludes:

With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure. . . For thou wilt save the afflicted people. . . For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
-Psalm 18:25-28

God will be merciful to me and to all those who call upon Him. We just need to ask. A simple, sincere prayer. All that power is waiting to protect us and save us. Smoke, fire, hot coals like hail, hurricanes, thunder, brilliant light - it is all available, God's full power and glory - when we ask.

David ends his Psalm with these words of praise and gratitude:

Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Great deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.
-Psalm 18:49-50

God has shown mercy to me, David, though I am not a king. May He show great mercy to my children and all that come after me.

Chariots of Fire

The king of Syria was on the warpath to conquer Israel, but the Prophet Elisha thwarted his every strategy by receiving revelation and telling the king of Israel about the Syrian battle plans. At first, the king of Syria thought a spy in his camp was leaking his plans to the Israelites. A servant of the king, however, knew the reputation of Elisha and rightly explained how the Israelite army learned of the king's plans. 

Determined to end Israel's revelatory advantage, the king of Syria sent "a great host" to capture Elisha. The Syrian army surrounded the city of Dothan, where Elisha lived with his young servant. The servant arose in the morning to begin his daily duties and saw the menacing army arrayed on the hills about the city. He fled back into the house, aroused Elisha, and said, paraphrasing, "Holy smokes! What are we going to do now?"

The wise prophet calmed the young man's natural fears with the famous words, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."

And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
--2 Kings 6:17

Elisha then prayed and asked the Lord to smite the Syrians with blindness, which the Lord promptly did. Elisha offered to lead the sightless and frightened Syrians to safety. They followed him, and he brought them into the capital city of Northern Israel. The Lord returned their sight, and when they saw their predicament, they promptly surrendered.

Of this account in the Old Testament Priscilla Shirer wrote: 

"Prayer made [the servant] aware of all the resources and strength and protection that God had already placed on their side. Without this renewed perspective he was already defeated before the battle had even begun . . . before the day had even started. That’s what the enemy wants. He wants you living in a state of defeat. Your defenses down. Your resolve weak and flimsy. Surrendering to an army of insecurities and misdiagnosis instead of courageously thriving in the sophisticated security of your identity in Christ."

The devil is ever on the offensive, plotting daily his strategies to attack our weaknesses and defeat our desires for righteousness. But God does not leave us defenseless. Though we may be surrounded, He has not left us alone. How important our prayers are in the morning to show us not only the enemy but also the strength of the Lord surrounding us! They that be with us are always more than they that be with them. We just need to pray to see the truth of our situation. Our mountains are always full of horses and chariots of fire. God will never abandon us. But we must pray to have eyes to see what God is doing for us every day.

Access to God

The prophet Jeremiah wrote these words from the Lord to an apostate and conquered Israel to give them hope that their days of slavery in Babylon would come to an end: 

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
--Jeremiah 29:13

Seventy years later, when the people of Israel had repented and truly sought the Lord, their prayers were heard, and they were released from captivity to return to Jerusalem.

Prayer gives us access to God.It is how we seek and search for Him. And His promise is that when we seek Him, we will find Him. He will not hide Himself from us. 

Our seeking, however, cannot be casual or occasional or whimsical. A half-hearted search will yield nothing. We rarely just stumble upon God while we are going about our daily business. He reveals Himself only when we have set our hearts upon Him. He is not a part-time God, and He is not looking for part-time disciples. He wants more than our words, our money, or even our time. He wants our hearts, our affections, our whole-souled attention. Because He knows only a sincere and determined seeker will gain the full benefit of His grace. He wants to save and exalt us, and that requires the whole person, body, mind, and heart. When we are baptized, we don't just baptize the foot, the hand, or the head: we are baptized completely, every part, fully immersed. Not a strand of hair or the tip of a big toe can remain above the water. We must be all in. 

And so it is with seeking the Lord, and so it must be with prayer. We must be all in with God, fully invested in our search, totally absorbed in our seeking. Only when our heart and soul are fully involved will we realize the sure and glorious promise that God can be found. 

As Elder Russell M. Nelson taught the brethren of the priesthood in General Conference a few years ago:
"Now, if all of this sounds excessive, please consider how different our relationships with our wife, children, and associates at work would be if we were as concerned about gaining priesthood power as we are in progressing at work or increasing the balance in our bank account. If we will humbly present ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to teach us, He will show us how to increase our access to His power" (see "The Price of Priesthood Power", General Conference, April 2016).

It is a challenge of mortality to be totally focused all the time. Our bodies, the people around us, and the temporal demands of daily living require our attention, too. Jesus did not sequester Himself in a monastery to pray every minute of every day. He went about among the people doing good, and God expects no less of us. Nevertheless, Christ's heart was always focused on the Father and His will, even in the mundane tasks of daily living. 

God wants us to do the same. He doesn't want us to stop living, but He wants us to live for Him. Prayer is the key, the secret sauce, to living a God-directed life. When we seek Him first and foremost, we find Him, and once we find Him and let Him in, He can direct is and guide us for good, indeed for the most good.