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Every so often I’ll hear in church that we should NOT ask the Lord about everything. Basically, only pray about the big choices and use your brain for the little ones. And don’t be led in everything. One person even said that if you ask about too many things you will stop getting answers. Were they mixing this up with the “cry wolf” story??? I disagree. I think that we should strive to walk in Christ’s Light always, or even walk with God, walk in the spirit. I do want to be led by the Lord in everything I do. I think it is okay to pray for a good deal on sneakers for your kid or to know which route to take home from work. That does not mean you don’t use your brain! At least not to me.
In other words, I can pray about everything and still make my own decision. Aren’t we supposed to pray always?
Just one of my peeves. What do you think?
I believe in the old axiom, “Pray as if everything depends on the Lord, then work as if everything depends on you.” This, actually, is one of the most important things that led me to where I am. As I went on my journey I began to reflect on the “big” decisions of my life – marriage, job, major, school, etc. And I noticed that there was a distinct pattern. Namely, I made these decisions using my own reasoning, generally speaking (specifically using really geeky choice matrices and probabilities). I didn’t really feel any promptings one way or the other on these decisions. I began to feel as if God was just apathetic toward me. In retrospect, “God,” as is understood by TBMs, has little to do with it, IMHO. I believe that prayer itself has benefits, but they are internal. I believe we say them to manifest our soul, to show we are humble, and to learn to radiate the god that is within us. If this has effect on our decision making it is because we are more at peace, and can see more clearly the paths ahead. Meditation has become very important to me in this regard, and in all honesty, I get much more from meditating than I generally got from prayers. When a personal god is taken as a literal entity, at least for me, a tendency manifests itself to make prayer about saying things to that personal god (vain repetitions) rather than bringing the god within us to the surface -as it were. It is the latter that makes prayer powerful, not the words to a literal deity.
Hence, in answer to your question, from my perspective, it really doesn’t matter what you “pray for” as this assumes there is some literal deity there listening for you to say the right words, at which time, according to His will, He may or may not give you what you’re asked for. “Praying always” is a state of mind, a method to bring the god within us into the limelight and thereby give us the clarity of mind to make good rational choices.
In this light, there are many who will make an irrational (to them) choice based on the “Spirit.” Then in retrospect, if it works out, they will say how they were “led by the Spirit.” It is my view that this is more a reflection on the abilities of the person to make life work, and be successful than it is on “God,” or the “Spirit.”
Prayer and meditation are valuable activities. I find myself over the past couple years saying fewer formal prayers. I still do, but I do so more just wherever I am, when I feel so prompted to speak words (out loud or in my mind). What I do more of is trying to experience a state of existence in prayer. This is more meditation than prayer. Sometimes I just find a quiet place and get into that state, with no questions or concerns in particular, and dive into a quiet state of “bliss” (for lack of a better word). I just soak up and feel the presence of God, which is like light, love, happiness, joy, peace. I also try to do actions as a form of prayer, to make my life a prayer. I kind of picked this up from watching the movie The Last Samurai (I know, kind of a wierd source of inspiration). But in the movie, the westerner made the an observation that people in the Japanese village worked on perfecting their daily tasks and turning them into a spiritual ritual. If they were making a cup of tea, they made the best tea they could out of love. If I make dinner, or spend time with my kids, I try to remember to be fully present and make it an act of devotion to God. Sometimes I think about that. Make any sense?
Valoel, you totally make sense. I tend to live in my head too much and need to learn to live in my body and in the moment more. jmb275, very interesting. I can get on board with much of your post. I am focusing on praying within myself more than praying to the ceiling. If God is in all of us then we miss the mark by trying to project our words and feelings to some far away location. I love the idea of “the Light of Christ” and feel that it is a much stronger force than the church gives credit. If we can let that godly force within in drive us in our lives I think we are being led by the spirit.
Ray, that is a favorite of mine, too.
just me wrote:If God is in all of us then we miss the mark by trying to project our words and feelings to some far away location. I love the idea of “the Light of Christ” and feel that it is a much stronger force than the church gives credit. If we can let that godly force within in drive us in our lives I think we are being led by the spirit.
Exactly. And if you were to ask Joseph Campbell, he would tell us we’re missing the mark a lot. In his mind, eternal life is now. If we don’t get it in this life, we’re never going to get it. Now is the time to become one with nature, the inner god (or light of Christ, or whatever), and to give birth to the spiritual. Sorry, I keep repeating this because it was my revelation from a week or so ago. It’s sort of my new hobby as it were.jmb275, we must be getting the same lessons or something! 
This gets to something that really links me into an association with mormonism as a spiritual tool. Joseph Smith had this idea that he taught a lot, that our mormon “Gospel” is all truth. Whatever we find that is good, beautiful, informative, promotes divinity, we are actively encouraged to bring this into our lives as part of our “mormon” faith. It doesn’t matter if we find it in other Christian churches, in Buddhism, Masonry, secular philosophy, science or any other source. We should enlarge our circle, or reconfigure it’s contents, the circle inside us that circumscribes truth into one great whole. Maybe not all members focus on this, and they are comfortable in a limited literal mythology. That idea *IS* at the core of our LDS foundation though. It is very “mormon” in my opinion. I enjoy that a lot!
Valoel wrote:It doesn’t matter if we find it in other Christian churches, in Buddhism, Masonry, secular philosophy, science or any other source. We should enlarge our circle, or reconfigure it’s contents, the circle inside us that circumscribes truth into one great whole.
I like this idea a lot, and it something I am really interested in and finding ways to incorporate more into my life now. Well said!
Indeed, Valoel, I think that is an important aspect of Mormonism you have pointed out. Oh that we were more open to this possibility within the church. That reminds me of Elder Ballards talk on the Doctrine of Inclusion, a well written talk. One part reads: Quote:Occasionally I hear of members offending those of other faiths by overlooking them and leaving them out. This can occur especially in communities where our members are the majority. I have heard about narrow-minded parents who tell children that they cannot play with a particular child in the neighborhood simply because his or her family does not belong to our Church. This kind of behavior is not in keeping with the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot comprehend why any member of our Church would allow these kinds of things to happen. I have been a member of this Church my entire life. I have been a full-time missionary, twice a bishop, a mission president, a Seventy, and now an Apostle. I have never taught—nor have I ever heard taught—a doctrine of exclusion. I have never heard the members of this Church urged to be anything but loving, kind, tolerant, and benevolent to our friends and neighbors of other faiths.
The Lord expects a great deal from us. Parents, please teach your children and practice yourselves the principle of inclusion of others and not exclusion because of religious, political, or cultural differences.
I think that not only goes for LDS folk associating kindly with other faiths, but some information and knowledge from other faiths should also be searched and included in our studies, since there is much to be learned from other sources outside the church.
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