Pray Continually

[Guest missingsomething]

Ok, so like many of you I just kinda always assumed that pray continually meant ... you know.. keep a prayer in your heart... Talk to the Lord often... Morning prayers, food blessings, screaming Toddler prayers (you know - PLEASE Father, grant me peace of heart, let me stay calm, thank you for a strong willed 2 yr old)... and then evening prayers.

WELL... after my RS lesson - I have a different idea on this now....

Perhaps... it means... that they should all be interconnected...that they build one upon the next.

Im going to try this, I think it will help:

Morning Prayers: I will give thanks for the night, for a new day. I will lay out my plans for the day- bring to His attention things or times where I will need help - and Ask and request the spirit to be with me. Ask for help for those I know

Daily: I will continue my pray about whatever prayers as they happen. But Im also going to try to sometimes jsut say THANKS. Not ask for anything at all... Just thank thee!

Evening: I will report on my day, tell where i lacked, where I felt the spirit...ask for guidance on where I need to improve... Ask for answers that have not yet been made known... and ask for help for those I know.

This way, my prayers will stream together - building each on the last, and hopefully making the "pray continually" much more meaningful to me.

What do ya'll think? Think it will help?? (Note, I already do morning,midday, and evening prayers but more often than not it is the standard,... thank thee for .... help me with .... help so and so.... in JCname, AMen).

[TruthSeekerToo]

It was a lovely lesson, wasn't it?

I have already been doing the more and shorter prayers all the time. What I hadn't thought of was how they stream together. I love the idea.

Also to live in an attitude thanksgiving. Our thoughts can continually be towards H.F.

Oh, and yes, it will change your life.

[Justice]

The best talk I've ever heard on this topic is from Elder Bednar (and yes I'm biased because he's my former Stake President :) )

From the November 2008 Ensign, titled "Pray Always"

LDS.org - Liahona Article - Pray Always

Here is a quote from it:

Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 3 Nephi 18:15, 18; D&C 31:12). Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children.

[deseretgov]

So you would start your prayer in the morning. Then after your are finished with what you are praying for in the morning you would just stand up without closing the prayer. Then daily prayers without opening or closing statements. Finally nightly prayer followed by a closing statement. Maybe I just don't understand.

It would look like this:

Morning: Heavenly Father, (insert content here)

Daily: (insert content here)

Night: (insert content here), in the name of Jesus Chirst. Amen.

Or are you talking about having seperate distinct prayers but the content is organized in such a way to flow better and be more sincere?

[applepansy]

I just talk to my Heavenly Father throughout the day (and night) about whatever comes up.

applepansy

[Moksha]

It would look like this:

Morning: Heavenly Father, (insert content here)

Daily: (insert content here)

Night: (insert content here), in the name of Jesus Chirst. Amen.

Wonder if you might end up getting those beeping sounds like when you leave the phone off the hook?

[Justice]

Or are you talking about having seperate distinct prayers but the content is organized in such a way to flow better and be more sincere?

I would say yes to this part, but perhaps it would be better if you read the talk and came away with your own understanding. Sometimes words mean different things to different people.

[Misshalfway]

I don't think it is necessary to start and end each prayer formally to really have a prayer in your heart thru-out the day. I am like Apple. I just talk to God all day in my mind. Sometimes I don't talk at all. I just open myself to listen and search for the Spirit to be there. I very rarely, if at all, end these thoughts " in the name of Jesus amen". Perhaps there is value in having this type of informal communication AND the formal, verbal, kneeling down thing.

[Connie]

The best talk I've ever heard on this topic is from Elder Bednar (and yes I'm biased because he's my former Stake President :) )

From the November 2008 Ensign, titled "Pray Always"

LDS.org - Liahona Article - Pray Always

Here is a quote from it:

Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 3 Nephi 18:15, 18; D&C 31:12). Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children.

Thank you, thank you, Justice. As i read the OP, i thought i've heard this before from a member of the twelve and was going to go search for it, but here it is, exactly the one i was thinking of.

[Dove]

Wouldn't it be neat to have an ongoing conversation with the Spirit throughout the day?

Sometimes I feel the Spirit so strongly throughout the day. Sometimes not. It's hard during the "not." I think prayer can so much be a two way conversation.

[Dove]

I don't think it is necessary to start and end each prayer formally to really have a prayer in your heart thru-out the day. I am like Apple. I just talk to God all day in my mind. Sometimes I don't talk at all. I just open myself to listen and search for the Spirit to be there. I very rarely, if at all, end these thoughts " in the name of Jesus amen". Perhaps there is value in having this type of informal communication AND the formal, verbal, kneeling down thing.

Miss Halfway,

It's good to see you back on LDS net, I thought you had left awhile ago....

[deseretgov]

I would say yes to this part, but perhaps it would be better if you read the talk and came away with your own understanding. Sometimes words mean different things to different people.

Sorry I didn't read the talk, just the Opening Post.

[Guest missingsomething]

I just talk to my Heavenly Father throughout the day (and night) about whatever comes up.

applepansy

I do this too.... this is my current method... while i wll still continue this... I am going to apply the above concept - goes along w/ creating things spiritually first. I am going to lay out the things I want to do this day, where i think I will need help based on the day, etc...

Bednar's talk is great and yes, I should have included it in the OP. I had read this - but I dont know, sometimes its takes me hearing it a couple different ways - diff people - for it to "stick"

I have also learned there is value in actually KNEELING... I believe its because you humble yourself by doing so. I also had achievement girls make prayer rugs - this gentle reminder by my bed makes it more difficult to get in bed w/out first stopping to say a prayer.

I do end both my morning and evening prayers in Jesus Christ Name Amen, we are **commanded** to do this. However, if Im sitting in traffic, and I have a min and start praying - I dont always say the closing..

Edited April 28, 2009 by missingsomething
responded to "do we do we not close each prayer"

[Justice]

I just open myself

I have found this to be the biggest key for me. I consciously open myself, knowing I can't hide anything. This is the key that helps my prayers to be as sincere as possible. Many times I even state or think it during my prayer, that I want to open myself to Father and let Him see everything I am and ask Him to help me change the things that are not according to His will. I know there are a lot of things that need changed, but by opening myself I feel I am more honest with Him and with others.

[Connie]

Wow, what a great thread. These are all really great ideas. I have found them to be most helpful. Thanks everyone! And thanks, missingsomething, for starting the thread.

[Hemidakota]

Ok, so like many of you I just kinda always assumed that pray continually meant ... you know.. keep a prayer in your heart... Talk to the Lord often... Morning prayers, food blessings, screaming Toddler prayers (you know - PLEASE Father, grant me peace of heart, let me stay calm, thank you for a strong willed 2 yr old)... and then evening prayers.

WELL... after my RS lesson - I have a different idea on this now....

Perhaps... it means... that they should all be interconnected...that they build one upon the next.

Im going to try this, I think it will help:

Morning Prayers: I will give thanks for the night, for a new day. I will lay out my plans for the day- bring to His attention things or times where I will need help - and Ask and request the spirit to be with me. Ask for help for those I know

Daily: I will continue my pray about whatever prayers as they happen. But Im also going to try to sometimes jsut say THANKS. Not ask for anything at all... Just thank thee!

Evening: I will report on my day, tell where i lacked, where I felt the spirit...ask for guidance on where I need to improve... Ask for answers that have not yet been made known... and ask for help for those I know.

This way, my prayers will stream together - building each on the last, and hopefully making the "pray continually" much more meaningful to me.

What do ya'll think? Think it will help?? (Note, I already do morning,midday, and evening prayers but more often than not it is the standard,... thank thee for .... help me with .... help so and so.... in JCname, AMen).

Nicely put...

I was stun in seeing your daily conversation is one of gratitude. It is not often that I had met someone who was not general authority who held this belief. Congrats in listening to the Spirit.

[Dove]

I am very grateful to read this uplifting thread~I believe that if Father has commanded us to have a prayer always in our hearts, that this can be done. I believe there are so many levels in feeling the Spirit, and probably different ways the Spirit relates to/communicates with each one of us.

The Holy Spirit is such an integral part of prayer.

Justice, thank you for the reference to that article. I would like to read the original conference talk that article was expounding on. Do you have a link to that one?

Thanks

Dove

[Justice]

I'm not the best at linking them.

But, go to the Church web site:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Go to Gospel Library and then Magazines

Click Ensign then Past Issues

Then go to the November 2008 Ensign and you will find Pray Always inside.

In case it works, here is the link. And by the way, it was the same article in the Liahona as it was in the Ensign.

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Pray Always

[Justice]

Also, Elder Bednar's talk before this one was about prayer also, and is like a companion talk to this one.