Neil L. Anderson in his book ‘The Divine Gift of Forgiveness’ wrote:
“We must realize that we begin to receive the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives through our prayers. It begins as we look to the Father in the name of the Son. It begins as soon as we ask with real intent.
The author of Hebrews said it this way: “let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”10 (for scripture references remember to scroll down)
When we come boldly, we come honestly, without pretense, not covering our sins before our Heavenly Father but expressing them, understanding the sorrow and pain they have caused to our Savior, to others, and to ourselves. Boldly means we come with a determination to change and to return more fully to the path our Savior has shown us. We come realizing that the great gift of forgiveness will come only through the grace and power of the Savior and in no other way.
. . . . Offering our whole soul means that we do not hold back. We don’t say, “Oh I want to give up this sin, but I want to hold on to another one.” We don’t excuse ourselves by saying, “I made mistakes, but there are others who are worse than I am.” And we don’t add, “This is not really my fault because I was being influenced by another. We don’t pity ourselves, saying, “I’m not good enough and God does not want to hear from me.” Rather we come boldly to the throne of God—sincerely, honestly, with real intent. We not only express our sorrow, but we listen as the Father guides us in what we should feel and what we should do next. We believe completely in prayer and repentance: completely, knowing that in this very difficult experience, our spirits will be renewed, cleansed, and refined.
C.S. Lewis explained, “Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You . . . . No half measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there; I want to have the whole tree down. . . . Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new outfit instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” (13 below)
As we humbly come to our Father in Heaven, there is a tremendous power in praying vocally. The Lord has said, “And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart.14
. . . . We show our Heavenly Father our true intent as we anticipate and plan for our communications with Him. Of course, many times our expressions are spontaneous, but when we consciously set aside an important time and an important place, as we pray vocally with real intent, the power of our prayers ascends to heaven. If we will make the time when we won’t be rushed and find a quiet place where we won’t be interrupted, and “cry out” to our loving Eternal Father, in the sacred name of His Son, and then listen, we will feel His Spirit and know He hears us and that His arms of mercy are still stretched out to us.17
~Neil L. Anderson, The Divine Gift of Forgiveness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 108-10
reference 13: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New Your: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 169
