REG prayer

Joy Prior
Honors Religion 211
Section 003
February 23, 2011
February 23, 2011
Testimony of Prayer
Prayer; I can constantly remember hearing about it in church, reading about it in the scriptures, and practicing it before I go to sleep. There are times when I pray more fervently. There are times when I pray in vain. There are times when I pray out loud, and there are times when I pray as if it were the only thing I can do. The assignment to ponder my daily prayers came at just the right time, and I was grateful to learn that having faith in my prayers go farther than just kneeling at my bedside morning and evening.
I am responsible to pray constantly. One of the assigned readings was Mark 11:24-26; these verses were about the spirit of prayer. The word “believing” jolted my soul, because I realized that the word believing is not past tense. Instead it is present tense; that means that it is happening now. When I pray my thoughts, feelings, and impressions do not just get left behind at the foot of my bed. No, quite the opposite, I should continually believe in what I prayed for.
When I am “believing” in my prayers I become accountable to change my daily conduct. I needed to change my daily conduct and environment to match my prayers, if the proper way to pray was to believe in my prayers even after my amen. I thought of a few things that I could do to have a “believing” prayer that would last the entire day. First, I had to start praying in the mornings. No more half-awake prayers were I am halfway dreaming until my second alarm goes off. Second, I had to remain positive throughout the day. I thought that the best way to do this would be to sing a positive hymn in my head when I started complaining to myself, but after a few days of trial and error I realized that reading my scriptures in the morning was the easiest way to remain positive for the rest of the day. Finally, I had to start looking for the answers. Sometimes I get what I call “Googled” answers to my prayers. To me a “Googled” answer is when God answers my prayers so quickly that I feel like I just had to type my question into His search engine and He spat the answer right back out at me. In all honesty this is usually how He answers my prayers. Rarely does Heavenly Father make me wait extended periods of time before answering my prayers.
This week I have been preparing for a dance tour, my classes need to be caught up, and I have had the worst cold. My brain has been all fogged up, and every morning I lay in bed for a few minutes before getting up because I feel like my brains might explode. My days have all been unexplainably productive when I start with a daily prayer. I don’t think that my days have been grand because I am blessed to be supper women when I pray. Instead, I think that I have not felt discouraged because when I start my day with a prayer the entire day I believe that God is with me. The impact of practicing a “believing” prayer has had on my life has made it so that long hours of dance practice, failed tests, and constantly taking vitamin C seems so secondary. I believe that God heard me in the morning. I believe that when I prayed to Him about the challenges of my day that He listened. I believe that He wants me to succeed. I believe that He will bless me, but most of all I believe that my Eternal Father remembers me.
To me Mark 11:24-26 has changed the manner in which I pray. I wish that I had a glorious moment to write about; a time when my entire perspective on prayer changed and I was better forever. Maybe such a dramatic story would sound better, but my testimony of prayer has been a steady increased the past two weeks. To pray constantly does not seem like such a burden, especially when I begin my day with a prayer. When I pray with a believing heart I remember that God is with me, and loves me throughout all of the trials, laughter, and joys of the day.