Bold in Mighty Prayer

One of the things that strikes me about Nephi’s psalm in 2 Nephi 4 is his absolute devotion to prayer.  He showed us both how he had lived a life filled with prayer, and he also gave us an example of what real prayer and communion with the Father consists of.  He said of his past experiences, “Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time.  And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high” (2 Nephi 4:23-24).  Nephi was not one who “said his prayers,” but he was one who did “cry” to God and who “waxed bold in mighty prayer.”  He did as Paul would later invite us to do: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).  There was no pride in Nephi’s approach before “the throne of grace,” but he also had no fear to come before God in pleading prayer in order to be “filled… with his love” (2 Nephi 4:21).  

                After Nephi lamented his weakness and spoke of how much the Lord in His goodness had blessed him, Nephi changed his audience.  Instead of speaking to us he turned into a prayer, almost as if he couldn’t help himself because he was so familiar with the Father.  His powerful and pleading language makes our “help us travel home safely” and “bless the food to nourish and strengthen our bodies”-type prayers seem rote and almost meaningless.  Nephi implored the Lord, “O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul?...  O Lord wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!” (2 Nephi 4:31-32).  He poured his whole soul out before God in such a way that makes me wonder if I’ve ever really put that much meaning in my own attempts to commune with God.  I love the way that he finished this powerful beseeching: “I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God” (2 Nephi 4:35).  It reminds me of Moses’s declaration to Satan: “I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him” (Moses 1:18).  Nephi was determined to continue to call upon His God all the remainder of his days. 

What’s most impressive to me about this prayer that we have in 2 Nephi 4 is not the eloquence—though it certainly is full of that—but rather the intensity of feeling with which he prayed.  It reminds me of my young daughter who prays most nights to her Father in Heaven something like this, “Please please please please please please don’t let me have bad dreams and do your work!”  That is the kind of faith and feeling that we all need in our prayers.