The Prayers and Preaching of Enos

Generally we think about Enos as the one who persevered in his supplication to the Lord because he prayed all day and into the night.  He wrote, “I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens” (Enos 1:4).  That certainly was an incredible act of faith to pray that persistently and that long, and the Lord answered his prayers in a powerful way.  But this really was only the start for Enos; as we read the rest of his book we see just how much he poured out his soul unto God.  He told us that after he received this answer, “I began to feel a desire for the welfare of my brethren, the Nephites; wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them.”  He described his prayers as “struggling in the spirit” and again the voice of the Lord came to him.  After that answer he did not stop praying, though; he wrote, “My faith began to be unshaken in the Lord; and I prayed unto him with many long strugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites.”  Enos got his answer from the Lord “after [he] had prayed and labored with all diligence.”  But, this was not all.  He continued to describe his concern for the sacred records, and wrote, “Knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually….  I had faith, and I did cry unto God that he would preserve the records” (Enos 1:9-16).  Enos had mighty prayer and supplication, he raised his voice high to the heavens, he poured out his whole soul unto God, he struggled in the spirit, he prayed with all diligence, and he cried unto the Lord continually—what an example of true, heartfelt, persistent communion with the Lord.  Enos didn’t just make an extended effort on a single day to get an answer to his prayers, but he sought the Lord will all his heart, all his life. 

            In addition to powerful prayer, I think we see one more important theme in the book of Enos.  He was a devoted missionary and teacher to the people.  We see that in his prayers—his pleadings were many for his people and the Lamanites.  He prayed that if they couldn’t receive the gospel in his day they’d be able to receive it in the future.  Enos wrote “at present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the truth faith,” clearly indicating that he was trying to preach the gospel to the Lamanites (Enos 1:14).  He told us that he “went about among the people of Nephi, prophesying of things to come, and testifying of the things which [he] had heard and seen” (Enos 1:19).  He and his people “did seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God.”  Among the people “there were exceedingly many prophets,” one of which was Enos himself.  He and those prophets were given to constant “preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord” (Enos 1:23).  In short, Enos was very busy preaching to his people.  He summarized his labors to bring souls to Christ this way: “[I was] wrought upon by the power of God that I must preach and prophesy unto this people, and declare the word according to the truth which is in Christ. And I have declared it in all my days, and have rejoiced in it above that of the world” (Enos 1:26).  Enos was a powerful example of diligence in prayer and diligence in declaring the word of God to all people.