Thursday, August 27, 2015

3 Nephi 19 - Prayer

Prayer is the theme of this chapter. It starts with people coming to listen to the Savior from the surrounding country. Can’t you just imagine those who saw Him the first day would be traveling all night long trying to reach as many people as possible? Then all these people would be joining them the following morning. The crowd would be enormous. It was so large in fact, they broke into twelve different groups. By so doing, their adventure in prayer begins.

The twelve disciples Jesus called the day before, start with prayer and exhort the people to pray. They preach, then pray again. Then they are baptized and the heavens open, angels appear then Jesus Himself comes to minister to them.

What does He do? He commands them all to pray and then prays Himself. Though a miracle occurs, the disciples continue to pray and Jesus goes to pray some more. Another miracle occurs and the Savior goes again to pray and… provided I’ve counted correctly… He offers yet another prayer, but this one is so moving, so powerful, so sacred that those who hear it are not able to record it. All the while, the disciples continue to pray.
Finally, at the end of the chapter, the disciples finish, setting the stage for the next phase of the second day…

It’s insightful that through all of the disciples’ prayers, the record states they did not use a lot of words, but they were filled with intense, sincere desire. While we read and marvel as we contemplate this experience from our vantage in time, it’s well to remember that simple, sincere prayer is as effective now as then. Try it and see…

No comments:

Post a Comment