Prayer: Nurturing Divine Relationships

The fourth principle in getting through adversity is to receive comfort, strength and guidance through prayer.

"It is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God,” Howard W. Hunter reminds us, “that will provide the support, balance, and the strength we need to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality.”

This is why we pray.

Sleeping Giants

We are nurturing divine relationships.  We are, to use Ezra Taft Benson’s phrase, ‘sleeping giants’. 

Edwin Markham captures the image of us as ‘celestial giants’ beautifully:

Man comes a pilgrim of the universe,

Out of the mystery that was before

The world, out of the wonder of old stars.

Far roads have felt his feet, forgotten wells

Have glassed his beauty bending down to

Drink.

At altar-fires anterior to Earth

His soul was lighted, and it will burn on

After the suns have wasted on the void.

His feet have felt the pressure of old

Worlds,

And are to tread on others yet unnamed—

Worlds sleeping yet in some new dream of God.

We come to earth not only ‘trailing clouds of glory’ but with an instinctive homing signal. So what does our relationship with the Lord look like?  How does he view us?  How should we relate to him?

Well, giants though we are, compared to the Lord we are...rather small.  Less than the dust of the earth, in fact.  The dust of the earth always does what God wills and we...don't always.

The Lord Looks On Us As...

...an infant crying with hunger...whom he comforts and feeds as a mother (Isaiah 66:13; Isaiah 49:15)

...as a son in need of correction...whom he guides with love as a father (Proverbs 3:12)

...as birthright children who come one by one...to receive his blessing (Jeremiah 31:20; 3 Nephi 17:21)

...as witnesses that testify they are ‘graved upon the palms of [his] hands’...in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy (3 Nephi 11:14-15)

As the great high priest the Lord (true to the stewardship given him of the Father) bears us as jewels upon his shoulders and over his heart (Exodus 28:9-30; Hebrews 4:14-16). 

Our Relationship with the Father

The Saviour’s relationship with the Father is a model for us to follow. 

·       Thanked the Father in all things (John 11:41)

·       Honoured the Father through word and deed (knelt to pray as a symbol of submission and respect) (Luke 11:2-4; 3 Nephi 17:15)

·       Prayed for friends (Luke 22:32)

·       Prayed to know where to go and what to do (Luke 4:42-43)

·       Reported on his stewardship (John 17)

·       Prayed his enemies might be forgiven (Luke 23:24)

As we nurture divine relationships we will feel the peace and power that come from divine direction and comfort.