From his book “Talking With God”, Robert L. Millet teaches”:
We pray because our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, taught us as little ones to close out our day with “Now I lay me down to sleep.” The words may have been simple, the deeper purposes from the action not wholly grasped at the time, but a pattern was established, a pattern of prayer that would serve us well into adulthood. We pray because somewhere along the road to discipleship we learned the precept and example to rely wholly, to rely alone, upon the merits, mercy, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Nephi 31:19; Moroni 6:4). We pray because we want to acknowledge God, because we desire to praise his Holy Son, and because we long to feel comforted and empowered by his Holy Spirit. In short we pray because we have been commanded to do so, because we need to, because we want to.
Surely more miracles would be wrought if more of us took the time and exerted the energy to petition our God in behalf of a darkened world which is travelling headlong toward spiritual dissolution. As theologian John Stott suggested, “I sometimes wonder if the comparatively slow process towards world peace, world equity and world evangelization is not due, more than anything else to the prayerlessness of the people of God.”
We pray because we read that some of the greatest men and women in history turned heavenward when they needed charity and conviction. We pray because the Lord and His prophets and apostles counsel us in the strongest terms, to request wisdom from God (James 1:5-6) to ask, to seek, to knock (Matthew 7:7), to persist and to importune (Luke 11:5-8). We pray because we so often find ourselves up against a wall, uncertain or unsure where or to whom we should turn, confident that no human being has the answers to our personal struggles. It is not unimportant that the English word prayer comes from the Latin root precarious. We pray out of desperation; we don’t know where to turn. We pray because a blessing has come into our lives, a heavenly gift that we definitely know did not come from friends, neighbors, and acquaintances;
I believe in God. I rejoice in the privilege it is to talk of Christ, to converse reverently of his name and nature, to speak boldly of his mission and ministry, to declare with conviction his immortality and infinity. In short, there are few things I delight more in doing than speaking of the Most High. There is, however, one thing I do enjoy more, and that is speaking to Him. We call that communication prayer. Regular and consistent and sincere and dedicated prayer is a sacred activity, one that transforms us into persons of purpose and of power, wholly surrendered to the mind and will of God and holy in our separation from distractions of this world. President Thomas S. Monson: taught: “Men and women of integrity, character and purpose have ever recognized a power higher themselves and have sought through prayer to be guided by such power. Such has it ever been. So shall ever be.”1
~~~Robert L. Millet “Talking with God”—Divine Conversations That Transform Daily Life”, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City p. 3-4 (continued. . . )
