A Form of Work

A familiar passage in the LDS Bible Dictionary states that “prayer is a form of work.”  I think that we see this fact manifested well in the various accounts of people praying in the scriptures.  We read of people who “cried unto the Lord” and “labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer” and “plead before [God]” (Psalms 142:1, Alma 8:10, D&C 109:32).  We have record of people who gave prayers that were extremely long in duration, such as Enos who cried “all the day long” and into the night or Nephi who “cried mightily unto the Lord all that day” (Enos 1:2, 3 Nephi 1:12).  The prayers that we have of many of the prophets weren’t just sincere but they filled with the yearnings of the soul.  We see that in language such as that of Joseph Smith: “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?... O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are… let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us” (D&C 121:1,4).  Nephi similarly put his whole soul into his prayer recorded in 2 Nephi 4: “O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation….  O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies!” (2 Nephi 4:30, 33)  All of these scriptures and many more show an intensity and level of spiritual work that was involved in their pleadings with God make some of the common phrases we sometimes quickly spout off—such as praying to “travel home safely” (when home is practically next door) or to ask that the donuts “nourish and strengthen our bodies”—seem to fall perhaps a little lacking on the sincerity scale.  I think our Father in Heaven expects more mental exertion on our part, and I’m the first to admit that I don’t always put forth that kind of “work” that I should.  

                In the days of the Patriarchs prayer was often done at an altar and accompanied by sacrifice.  There was in fact a lot of physical work required in order to offer some of their prayers.  For example, we know that Adam did “offer sacrifices unto the Lord,” which means that he did the work of building an altar of stones, finding an acceptable animal sacrifice, and offering that on his altar before his actual prayer (Moses 5:6).  Similarly when Abraham traveled from the land of Ur we read that he “built an altar in the land of Jershon, and made an offering unto the Lord, and prayed that the famine might be turned away” (Abraham 2:17).  Note that building the altar and offering the sacrifice were all in preparation for his actual prayer to the Lord.  There was a significant amount of work he did before praying.  We also have the account of Lehi doing the same thing shortly after they left Jerusalem: “And it came to pass that he built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks unto the Lord our God” (1 Nephi 2:7).  Again he built the altar, then made his animal offering, and then he prayed to God.  The Lord of course does not require us to build altars and sacrifice animals in order to pray, but perhaps these examples can help us realize the need to give a little more of ourselves to the Lord as we ponder and pray and plead before Him.