Supplication to God Daily

To my son, 

                Today I was reading in Alma 31 which is the beginning of the mission of Alma and several of his companions to the Zoramites. The Zoramites were dissenters from the Nephites, meaning that they had had the gospel preached to them but had fallen away and were no longer keeping the commandments. In his description of them Mormon said this about them: “Neither would they observe the performances of the church, to continue in prayer and supplication to God daily, that they might not enter into temptation” (Alma 31:10). In other words, they had stopped praying to God daily and so they had fallen into transgression and were no longer choosing what the Lord wanted. More that just describing what happened to this people, this verse teaches us a key to staying faithful to the Lord: daily prayer and supplication to the Lord. As we pray fervently to the Lord for His strength and help, He will protect us and help us to avoid temptations. Alma taught this earlier to the people of Ammonihah: “But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering” (Alma 13:28). In other words, as we pray continually the Lord will not let us be tempted more than we can bear and we will be led by the Holy Spirit to choose that which is right. The Lord put it this way in our dispensation: “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (Doctrine and Covenants 10:5). I know that there is indeed great power in prayer to help us overcome our weaknesses and negative thoughts and desires to do the wrong thing. Like the Lamanites converted to the Lord by Ammon and his brethren as well as the people of King Benjamin, as we pray with all our hearts to the Lord we can have “no more desire to do evil” and want instead “to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2, Alma 19:33).

                I want to encourage you today to pray morning and night and any other time that you feel you need help, especially when you are discouraged or tempted. In one of my favorite hymns about prayer we sing this: “Prayer will change the night to day. So, when life gets dark and dreary, Don’t forget to pray.” Prayer can indeed “change the night to day,” meaning that prayer can change how we see things. Our circumstances may not change, but we will have light to help us discern clearly and know what we should do. Without daily prayer to guide us in our lives it is a bit like walking through our toy room in the total dark—you are bound to trip up and step on something. But with the lights on, it is easy to make it across and avoid what’s on the ground. The light doesn’t remove what is there, but it changes our own perception and gives us power to avoid stepping on that painful pile of Legos! Don’t forget "to continue in prayer and supplication to God daily" and ask His help to overcome temptation and negative thoughts, and I know that He “will direct thee for good” (Alma 37:37). 

Love,

Dad