From Robert L. Millet and his book “Talking with God”:
Some years ago an anti-Mormon organization placed forty thousand of a book on the doorsteps of people living in the Orem and Provo areas of Utah. The book was intended to warn those not of the LDS faith to avoid Mormons and those within the faith to get out as quickly as they could. A little over a hundred pages into the book, the author, a former Latter-day Saint, spoke of the knock on the door that would inevitably occur and the two well dressed young men or young women who would be waiting at the door to explain their message. The author pleaded with readers not to let the missionaries in. If, however, their sense of Christian charity overcame them and they let the young people in, then whatever they did, they must not listen to them. But if the missionaries were able to share their message before they could be stopped, the missionaries would eventually ask the person to pray about the message of Mormonism. The author warned his readers never, never to allow themselves to do such a thing. In fact, the writer added, a seeker after truth must never trust thoughts, feelings, and prayers when ascertaining the truthfulness of any message. There is only one thing that can be trusted and that is the Holy Bible.
My first thought was, How can a person make any sense out of the Bible if he or she does not dare think, feel, or pray? The writer explained that because each of us is a fallen creature, a depraved man or woman who has not the power to discern what is right or what is wrong, we are lost forever unless a power beyond us comes into our lives and leads us to the gospel path. What we think is good is actually bad. What we think is wrong is actually right. Our thoughts are actually polluted. Our feelings are degraded, Our prayers are useless.
Whatever happened to the invitation to seek, to ask, to knock in order to receive blessings and guidance from God? (Matt. 7:7-8). What about the powerful invitation to ask God for wisdom, knowing he is eager and willing to grant it? (James 1:5). Why even give us the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern, an example if we are not safe in offering up our petitions to the heavens?
Nephi warned us that the evil man teacheth us not to pray, but the Spirit of God will always teach us to express our needs and wants to a loving Father (2 Nephi 32:8-9). It is, in fact a diabolical and nefarious ploy to warn people not to pray, to frighten them into believing that we may not with confidence pray and receive answers. If only the pure in heart prayed, if only the spiritually refined lifted up their voices to God, if only those who have been purified of all sin importuned the heavens, this world would be even worse than it is now. The Church of the lamb of God, the body of Christ is made up of men and women who are striving to bring their lives into conformity with the Savior’s teachings, but they are still human, still finite, still unholy. Their desires are noble, but often their conduct falls below the divine standard. If we cannot feel good enough about praying, if we must constantly stew and fret about or whether we will be deceived in prayer, we are truly left without help.
I testify that you and I have every right to pray, every reason to trust our Heavenly Father, every motivation to lean upon his Holy Son. Christ is the embodiment of perfect love and perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18; Moroni 8:16). Satan cannot overpower a man who prays earnestly. The evil one cannot come off as the conqueror of the woman who is found regularly on her knees. We can have faith in prayer. We have every reason to come boldly unto the throne of grace of him whose every word was true and every action was righteous (Hebrew 4:16), every reason to be not arrogant but confident. Faith is confidence. Faith is trust. Faith is reliance. We can rest assured that God will hear our prayers, that he will inform and inspire as we seek him.
~~~Robert L. Millet. . . Talking with God. . . . Divine Conversations That Transform Daily Life, Deseret Book, 2010
