From Marion D. Hanks of the Seventy (deceased):
Preparing for prayer can help communication with the Lord become an experience full of meaning and full of love, and can help to bring about the realization of God’s purposes, and of our appropriate purposes, in prayer.
Our hearts must be prepared for prayer, for the instruction is that we are to go to Him with “all our hearts,” with lowliness of heart, with honest hearts, and with broken and contrite hearts.
If our hearts are right and committed to the Lord, we will go to Him with confidence, with, as the Psalmist said, “expectation” in the Lord (Psalm 62:5), believing that we shall receive. The fullness of our blessings and soul-satisfying answers to our prayers will come when we learn to “yield our hearts” unto the Lord:
“Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger in their humility and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their faith souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.” (Helaman 3:35.)
God expects us to come unto him with our spirits in tune, ready to yield our hearts unto him. If we will do this, we have his promise, and we will receive the blessings.
Our minds also need to be prepared for prayer. Through and study we can begin to learn what we need to know. And we must think — actively, consciously, quietly, reflectively, honestly, deeply think. Then we can, in good conscience come to the Lord to seek wisdom, comfort, strength, grace, or courage. When we know our own needs, know what we have to be thankful for, know what our responsibility is to God and others, then, with our souls hungry and our desires strong and honest, we can approach the Lord with earnest questions, appropriate petitions, and grateful minds. ~Marion D. Hanks, A Year of Powerful Prayer (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), 94-95
