Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone. Welcome to another FollowHIM Favorites. My name’s Hank Smith, I’m here with John Bytheway. Hi, John.

John Bytheway: 00:08 Hi, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:09 John, you know the drill. We take one question from this week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. The question this week comes from Romans 8 where Paul talks about prayer. John, how would you answer this question? Why do we pray? What’s so important about it?

John Bytheway: 00:24 Well, that’s a good question because sometimes we even get tripped up by, am I saying the right words or am I saying them in the right order? And things like that. And it is good to try to pray in the most reverent way and everything, but boy, just the fact that you get on your knees, opens up the door for the spirit to inspire you. There’s a verse in Romans 8:26, I’ve always liked this. “Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh the intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” I love that verse. That just says, just the very act of praying, even if, “Heavenly Father, I don’t know what I need, but I feel the need to pray that the spirit knows.” And to mix it with another scripture, the fact that you have come to knock and ask and seek means the Lord will open the door to you.

Hank Smith: 01:16 Beautiful. Isn’t there a verse in Joseph Smith History that says, “I knelt down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.” That’s one of the most simple definitions of prayer, I think. “Offer up the desires of my heart.” If it’s in your heart, talk about it. If it’s something you’ve been pondering and thinking about, talk about that. And I think what Paul is trying to say here in Romans 8:26 John, is you don’t have to worry so much about getting your words right, “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” If you’re going to wait to say a perfect prayer, you’re never going to pray. And God is going to accept your imperfect prayer because he knows your heart.

John Bytheway: 01:56 Yeah. I think that the Lord’s not going to say, “Oh, nope, you got your thee, thou, thines mixed up. I’m sorry, I’m not listening anymore.” Oh, no he’s going to hear our simplest prayer and we might get nervous about it if it’s at church or in front of people, but I just think that’s such a good way for us to open ourselves up to the influence of the spirit. It’s not so that we can say, “I said my prayers.” We pray so that the influence of the spirit can teach us and affect us and heal us, I think.

Hank Smith: 02:25 Yeah. It’s not a checklist item, it’s a way to bring your will to line it up with the Lord’s will. And Paul says in “Verse 28, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So that’s the most important part, is coming with a love of God to your prayers and everything else will work out. It’ll work itself out.

John Bytheway: 02:46 That’s another great verse. God is so good at making even our hard things work together for good. He’s expert at that.

Hank Smith: 02:54 Yeah. Verse 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Prayer is always open to you. You are never unworthy to pray or disqualified from praying. Prayer is always available to you. Nothing can separate you from that love of Christ that is available to you through prayer.

John Bytheway: 03:11 And if you’ve messed up, tell him, he knows already.

Hank Smith: 03:15 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 03:15 “Heavenly father, I messed up.”

Hank Smith: 03:17 You know it and I know it. So if you’re wondering, can I pray? Should I pray? What should I pray for? John And I would encourage you to just start, just get started and the spirit’s going to help you and you’re going to figure it out and hopefully you’ll come to love prayer. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast, it’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts and then come back next week and join us for another FollowHIM Favorites.