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A Conversation About Prayer

No man can be saved until he learns to pray. Hence, the commandment to pray is as present in our scriptures as is water on our planet. But will He really answer me, a sinner? Before you set out to converse with the Father, there is another conversation from long ago that you need to overhear.

One night, the Savior went up into a mountain somewhere in Galilee and spent all night in prayer. When it was day, He called His disciples, and, of them, He ordained twelve to be Apostles (Luke 6:12-13). It appears that He then came down from the mount and found a great multitude waiting for Him on the plain. He ministered to them and then went up into the mountain again. He called His disciples unto Him and in the presence of the people, began to teach them in preparation for their forthcoming missionary labors (Luke 6:16-20). Matthew called it the Sermon on the Mount. Luke records it as the Sermon on the Plain.

Near the end, Jesus was instructing His disciples what they should and should not teach the people. He said, “Say unto them, ask of God. Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh shall find and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

But then His disciples, knowing something about the people they were going to teach, said to Him. “They will say unto us…God, we know, heard Moses and some of the Prophets; but us He will not hear. And they will say, we have the law for our salvation, and that is sufficient for us” (JST Matthew 7:14-15).

Does that not sound familiar? “He won’t answer us, we’re not good enough.”

Now, please, listen to the Master’s reply. “Thus shall ye say unto [the people], what man among you having a son and he shall be standing out, and shall say, Father, open thy house that I may come in and sup with thee, will not say, Come in, my son; for mine is thine, and thine is mine” (IST Matthew 7:16-17)? “Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him” (Matthew 7:9-11)?

Could you ever lock your pleading child out of your house? Would you ever deny them food, no matter what they did?

Neither will He!