Here is the talk that Clint gave in Sacrament Meeting on the 27th of November:
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My name is Clint Johnson and I was recently called to the Eugene, Oregon Mission. I’m really excited to be able to serve a mission. I have been through a lot to get me to this point and I’m so happy that I have this opportunity. Today I will be speaking to you about prayer. I would like to start with a story.
Once upon a time in the exotic and unfamiliar land of Lindon, Utah I was riding my bike home from Lindon Elementary with my friend Nelson. It was freezing cold in the early winter, and the last thing I wanted to do was ride my bike directly into the fierce wind. I grudgingly got on my bike and quickly realized that my front tire was flat. We walked our bikes down to Walker's to fill up my tire with air. We tried to unscrew the tube but discovered that it was screwed in too tight and there was no way we could unscrew it with our freezing hands. We assessed the problem and decided that we should go inside the store and ask if they had any pliers, and if they did, if we could use them. Fortunately they did have pliers and they said we could use them. We pried and screwed and striped the tube, but I'm sorry to say, that even with the pliers we could not get the lid to come free of the tube. To me at that young age, I started losing hope and thought that I might never be able to make it home. It was at these desperate times that my friend Nelson said a silent prayer, asking that we would be able to unscrew the lid and be able to make it home safe. Immediately after he said his prayer an unknown stranger came and asked us what we were doing. We told him we couldn't open the lid to put air into my tire. He took the pliers and struggled for a few moments and finally was able to unscrew the lid. After the man had gone, Nelson turned to me with sincere determination and said, 'prayer works.'
Today I would like to speak about how much prayer really works. Elder Richard G. Scott said,
"Prayer is a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul. Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father. It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer."
Close Quote
First I would like to talk to you about how we should pray.
The basic outline of a pray is fairly simple. In Preach My Gospel it says.
• Address our Heavenly Father
• Express the feelings of your heart
• And close in the name of Jesus Christ
I want to focus on expressing the feelings of your heart. This section of the prayer is where you would give thanks, pray for others, or seek for guidance.
I was always told when I was growing up that you give thanks for what you have first and then you ask for things you desire. This is not necessarily the "right" way of praying, but I can testify that it has had an amazing impact on my prayers. When I start my prayers by giving thanks I feel humbled right from the beginning. As I ponder all the things the Lord has given me, I begin looking outside of myself and am less worried about what's going to happen to me in my life. My desires seem to shift from wanting to change myself to wanting to help others. Then when it comes time to ask for things I need in my life I feel that I have a better perspective of the grand scheme of eternity.
Another thing that is good to pray for before you pray for yourself, is to pray for others and their welfare. It does not take a long time to think of someone who has a worse circumstance than you. By praying for others, you will, again be humbled and your prayer will become more meaningful and more heartfelt.
After you have humbled significantly, I feel that then is the time where you can ask for help in your life. This is a very, very important aspect of a prayer. There many times when we as humans need things that can only be given by our father in heaven. There have been many times in my life when I have asked for the Lord to help me. No matter what your concern is, know that the Lord loves you and that he does have the power to help you. He wants to help you. His arm is lengthened out all the day long. He longs for you to reach out to him humbly and seek his guidance. All you have to do is ask. It doesn't matter how far-fetched it may seem to you. Just ask, and the Lord will answer you.
It is through asking that one can come to a knowledge of this gospel. In Moroni 10 we learn that "if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
There are three things that it says in that scripture that, to me, seem like the key to receiving an answer through prayer.
• Sincere Heart
This means that sincerely desire to know
• Real intent
This means that the point of you praying is to know the truth. Not to try to prove that prayer doesn't work.
• Having faith in Christ
Which is extremely important because it is through Christ that we can even communicate with God. That is why we close in his name.
There are many experiences that have been told about the power of prayer, but I think that the stories that you don't often hear are possibly the more common ones. The prayers that you don't feel are answered.
I remember when I was really young my parents gave me a half dollar. It was totally cool and I loved it. It made me feel really rich. I was playing with out in the backyard, practicing my coin flipping technique and happened to lose it in the grass. I looked for a small amount of time, but then I had brilliant idea. I prayed really hard that my half dollar would come back to me, and I sincerely believed that my wishes would come true. I had this picture in my mind of the half dollar floating up out the grass magically. I thought if that would happen then I would know for sure that this church is true. I hate to say it, but I never saw that half dollar again. It was lost forever in the long, thick grass. At that young age I was confused why it didn't work. I did everything that my primary teachers told me to do.
There are many reasons why that half dollar didn't come floating up out of the grass as I had hoped. One thing that is key, is that I didn't understand the Lord's plan for me. The Lord knows everything and part of everything includes the knowledge that 50 cents was not something I particularly needed at that point in my life. In Moses 1:39 it says For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Notice how that doesn't include having half dollars or any other material thing. Sometimes it is hard to remember the Lord's ultimate goal for us is to have immortality and eternal life. This should be our goal too. We must try hard to not get caught up in thinking how important minor things may be.
Another thing that I did wrong in this story is that I didn't ask to be able to find the half dollar, I asked for the half dollar to come to me. So often we find ourselves asking for our situations to change rather than asking for strength to overcome them. Remember how when Nephi was given the enormous task of building a boat, he did not ask for the boat to build itself. He asked the Lord to help him know where to get oar to make tools to make the boat.
Perhaps what I could have asked for is strength to overcome the extreme sadness that would come after losing this precious trinket.
In closing I would like to leave with you a few tips to make your prayers more meaningful.
1. Pray vocally
I know that I am kind of ADD. I get distracted when I pray sometimes and I start thinking about something that doesn't even matter and I even forget that I'm praying. When I pray vocally I find that I am more focused and that makes my prayers more meaningful
2. Use Language of respect
This means to use pronouns of the scriptures. Like thee, thou, thine. At first when I started doing this, I thought it was kind of weird and not natural. But when we pray remember that we are praying to heavenly father and he deserves respect. By using those kind of words we show that we are worshiping him.
3. seek guidance from spirit to know what to say in prayers
This came as kind of a shock to me. You can for the holy ghost to help you to know what to pray for. Even guide you to know what to say. D&C 50:30 says, "But know this, it shall be given you what ye shall ask."
4. Act on what you pray for
Heavenly father wants you to do more than just ask for blessings. You also have to do everything you can to learn about the subject you pray for. In D&C 9:8 it says, "Behold I say unto you that you must study it out in your mind: then you must ask me if it be right." In True to the Faith it says the power of your prayers depends on you.
It has been a long journey for me. I have gone through some hard trials and have done some stupid things. I know that the Lord loves each one of us so much. He has shown this love to me. He never gave up on me. Even when I denied him, he didn't give up on me. I remember I was in hardest part of my life ever. I didn't have anything left in me. No hope, no faith, and desire to move on. I had only one place left to turn and that was to God. I remember I prayed to him. I don't remember what I said and don't even remember how I felt, but the Lord accepted me even after all I have done. There is almost nothing we can do that the Lord will not forgive us of. I know with all my heart that the Lord looks after us and loves us dearly. I'm so glad that the Lord saw fit to snatch me up out of the complete misery I was in and direct to the right path. I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to serve a mission in Eugene, Oregon. I know that through prayer, we can come closer to God and that we can grow to love him even as he loves us.
