Church Talks
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT ON “PRAYER”
[Talk given by John E. Enslen at the Ward Council Meeting Wetumpka Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 10, 2018.]
When I learned yesterday afternoon in an email that I had the spiritual thought this morning, I took advantage of my obedience to the counsel from our stake president. I had already written down my “thoughts” on a daily basis, so I went to my journal for January 1 to the present and picked out “thoughts” which dealt with perhaps the most fundamental requirement for a truly Christian life—prayer. Eight of my written daily thoughts since January 1, about 20%, dealt in one way or another with prayer. I thought I would share them with you just as they appear in my journal. I will reveal the source if the idea for the “thought” was taken from another person. Otherwise, it comes from my mind, but I don’t claim originality in any of it.
The first two “thoughts” come from a book by Mason Sawyer who was a fulltime missionary in Wetumpka not long ago. Most of you did not know that Mason had been sent back home from the MTC and then he returned to the missionary field later. He has written a great book called: No Regrets, When A Missionary Comes Home Early.
Thought: “Whether you are old, young, male, female, Christian, Muslim, atheist, black, or white—no matter what culture or background you come from, everyone wants to be happy. [O]vercom[ing] trials...[is]...an integral part of [achieving] happiness.” (Mason Sawyer) [End of Thought]
[Prayer helps us to overcome trials.]
Thought: “Prayer is used as a life-line when we are crying out for help and need comfort. We don’t stop and listen to give ourselves a chance to receive revelation or guidance. We treat prayer like ordering a pizza on the phone; we place our order, all the things we need, and then hang up.” (Mason Sawyer) [End of Thought]
This “thought” comes from the great tennis player Arthur Ashe who died of AIDS as a result of a bad transfusion of blood:
Thought: “If I were to say, ‘God, why me?’ about the bad things [in life], then I should have said, ‘God why me?’ about [all of] the good things that have happened in my life.” (Arthur Ashe) [End of Thought]
The remaining five “thoughts” are reflections of mine:
Thought: Sufficient unto every day is the trouble thereof. [End of Thought]
[We need constant prayer.]
Thought: Truly bad people have an absence of prayer in their lives. The devil takes good people and makes them bad, and he takes bad people and makes them worse. [End of Thought]
Thought: Prayer really does work. I believe in it fully. But I have found that it rarely works in the exact way that I expected it to work. [End of Thought]
Thought: The Lord’s timing is so much better than our own. [End of Thought]
Thought: In our house we: Trust in God; Pray; Read the scriptures; Love one another; Bless the food; Think good thoughts; Say I’m sorry; Try to do better; Show respect; Dance in the kitchen; Laugh like crazy; and Never give up. [End of Thought]
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.