Article October 11, 1993 Issue

Praying for ourselves and others

Learning how to pray effectively is worth all the effort we can give it.

Anne M. Morin

Prayer is a sweet and sacred activity. It brings us peace, enables us to forgive, and sets us on the right track.

Prayer can take many different forms, such as praise to God, an affirmation of His all-power, thanksgiving, supplication, yielding to God's will, and obedience. The power of prayer, in its many forms, is a central message of the Bible.

Why is it, then, that prayer sometimes seems hard for us? Because it's opposed by the mortal, materialistic sense of life, which would squelch spirituality and progress. Prayer—which brings spiritual reality to light—dooms the mortal view of things and therefore may face resistance. Jacob's wrestling, as recounted in the book of Genesis, is an example of the struggle that matter-based views can put up before they are subdued through prayer (see Gen. 32:24–30).

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