From Truman G. Madsen. . . .
They say it in one way or another, those who really know about prayer: Only yearning prayer gets through.
But there are three kinds of yearning.
We yearn when we mean what we say. But is that enough when we are asking the impossible, or when what we are asking is, if we could only see, not for our good?
We yearn when we care terribly. But is that enough when what we care for, however desperately, is a fist-shaking fixation that presumes that God visions less of what is needed than we?
We yearn, finally, when we do not only mean and care intensively, but when at the core we are as anxious to listen as to ask. We yearn when we will to abide counsels already given and respond to him and his way in his way.
So long as we are set in our own uninspired desires, not moldable, we must break our hearts before we can pray from them. So need we wonder why the heavens are often like brass over our heads?
Humble prayer is the beginning of communion with the highest of personalities—God and his Son Jesus Christ—of higher ways of seeing and feeling, as it were, through their eyes.
Achieving this is a life-process, not a five minute thing. But it is sometimes closer in youth than it is in maturity. Youth may keenly grasp the truth: that even at our best we are like the blind boy who walks with his friend. He does not believe, nor bluff, that he is self-sufficient. Instead, he responds to the slightest nudge. (If you would know the power of God, try, early in life, to become just this dependable in your dependence.)
As this happens, the whole thing becomes the instrument that vibrates upwardly. No special words are needed, no forced tone of voice, and no dramatic play-acting.
Then we begin to recognize the “first answers” to our prayers—the answers that always come before the others. What are these?
What are these?
They are subtle flashes that register within. And they are real. They center “in your mind and in your heart?” (Doctrine & Covenants 8:2), and are, therefore, a perfect blend of thought and feeling. They come with a serene flow of power that is light and warmth and liquid surety. They whisper a “Yes,” or a “No,” or a “Be still,” a “Trust,” or an “Act well thy part.”
This is what a modern young prophet calls “breaking the ice” and “obtaining the Holy Spirit” which cause “the bosom to burn.” He says that much emptying ourselves of unworthiness and much filling ourselves with concentration precedes it. He says we should strive to stay on our knees until it happens.
And how do you know that this burning is of God? Maybe it is just hope, guess, or a wish.
You know by the quiet verdict of your own inner being. (And you know just as well when you don’t know.) You know because the haunting “I doubt” and the painful “I fear” are swallowed up in living light. You arise this time, after many darkened times, tinctured with gratitude. With the glow comes a lingering love, a knowledge that forges a resolve to do what must now be done, and a faith for the next time.
Thus yearning prayer becomes burning prayer—burning-with-the-Spirit prayer.
Happy is the youth who prays for, and then until, and finally with, this subtle flame. For “he that asketh in Spirit shall receive in Spirit.” (Doctrine & Covenants 46:28). ~Truman G. Madsen: A Year of Powerful Prayer (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), p.108-110
