I will follow Thee my God and My All
When I can see no more;
I will trust in Thee
When all hope flees;
I will praise Thy name
When I am left without ease.
I will nurture the seeds of my faith
With tears of my affliction;
Yet will I look up to heaven
And believe in Thy throne;
I will trust in the strength of Thine arms
To lift me and carry me home.
- CATHRYNE
ALLEN
PSALM
150:1,2,6: Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in
his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his
mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
One
of the dominant themes of the Book of Psalms is praise. The entire book ends with
it. Ancient scripture shows us plainly that praising God was very much a part
of religious worship.
The
various heavenly beings that John the Beloved saw on the isle of Patmos in his
Revelation, were all worshipping the Father (Revelation 4:8-11). John also
taught that exalted beings will continue to worship Heavenly Father in the
eternities to come because He will always be our God (D&C 76:21; 92-93). In
response to John’s vision, Elder Neal A. Maxwell affirmed that “we will go on
praising the Lord for ever and ever”. (From
Whom All Blessings Flow, Ensign, May 1997, 12).
The
practice of praising God seems to be a foreign one in our day and age. All our
prayers consist of is thanksgiving and requests. Rarely in our prayers do we
praise God for who He is and what He does.
One
of my favourite scriptures of all is what I call a modern-day psalm recorded by
Joseph Smith:
“Let
the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and
dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and
rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field
praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and
the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And
let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say,
how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory
and salvation, and honour, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms,
principalities and powers!” (D&C
128:23)
Whenever
I read this scripture my heart swells with admiration of our God and His
immense power. So well did Joseph understand this power that he felt the very
nature should shout praise to Him who created all things, the greatest of which
is God’s work and His glory to bring about eternal life and immortality of man
(Moses 1:39). This is thanksgiving veiled in praise.
Something
important to remember. We have to know what we praise in God: who He is, what
He does, His involvement in our lives, His love, His constant care, His
greatness. We have to know God. If we do not glean this from our own lives, we
need to do so from the scriptures. Our knowledge of His greatness needs to be
so great that we struggle to find mortal words to express it. This knowledge
needs to be so ingrained in our hearts that
no amount of adversity can take it away from us.
Until
we find utterance for the deserving praise of Him who lives our souls to save,
may we allow our desire to grow until such words flow from the very depths of
our hearts:
I long to praise Thee
With magnitude of words I cannot find
That tell the glory that is Thine.
As I can do so little this desire to
meet,
I place my loyal love at Thy holy
feet.
I was speaking to a friend recently who told me he is presently teaching his children to say prayers of gratitude. For a time they are not allowed to ask for anything, only express gratitude to God for everything they receive at His hand. I was so touched by this because I believe in prayers of gratitude. I believe they bring us closer to God.
Another friend taught me years ago the true order of prayer which is praying by the power of the Holy Ghost. When we ask for his presence at the start of our prayer, we are given to ask for that which the Father is willing to give us for ‘he that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh’ (D&C 46:30). It’s an easy way of submitting to God’s will.
Praying by the power of the Holy Ghost also ensures that we do not ask for the wrong thing because ‘anything that is not expedient for us, shall turn unto our condemnation’ therefore we should not ‘ask for that which we ought not’ (D&C 8:10; 88:65)
I have learnt one interesting truth through prayer. There is no free lunch. That’s Satan’s philosophy. You get what you pray for but it comes with a price. I have noticed I have not prayed for one attribute I wanted without getting a difficulty or trial of some sort to enable me to develop what I’ve asked for. There is no magic wand that will change us into what we want to be overnight. If you pray like this make sure you are the person who is willing to change and to grow.
I believe there is also a higher and more supernal art of prayer. It is a prayer of worship. Whenever I come across someone’s prayer recorded in the scriptures I am touched to my core to hear such beautiful words of praise uttered by man. I am saddened that our prayers today fall short somewhat of reverence and worship they used to be anciently and now tend to be mere one-way dialogues of thanks and petitions for help. Some of us do not worship God for who He is and tend to speak to Him in all too familiar and common way as if He is our friend and so godly respect gets somewhat lost.
Consider the beautiful words of King Hezekiah’s prayer: “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth….” (Isaiah 37:16-20) or of King Mannaseh who was the most loathed and cursed king in history of Judah, the most idolatrous king who sacrificed his own son to a heathen god, added devotion of heavenly bodies and constellations to idol worship, who shed innocent blood of prophets and all the righteous men among Hebrews every day until he had filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other (2 Kings 21).
When the Assyrians carried him off to Babylon he saw the error of his ways and went to the Lord with the most profound prayer that is today known as The Prayer of Manasseh. A reference to the prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in 2 Chronicles 33:19). The prayer is deemed to be Apocryphal by Jews and Christians alike and is used by some Christian Churches today. These are the words that touched my heart the most because they were uttered from the very depth of Manasseh’s heart: “O Lord, God of our fathers…unending and immeasurable are your promised mercies….O Lord I am justly afflicted because I did evil things before you….And now behold I AM BENDING THE KNEES OF MY HEART…” Have you ever heard a prayer of repentance as touching as this???
Manasseh’s prayer is today considered one that pays tribute to the merciful heart of God. Praying to God acknowledging His providence, mercy, grace, kindness, love and all the perfect attributes He possesses will bring us nearer to His throne because of the humility which will grow in our hearts and endear us to the God of heaven. Therein we will find forgiveness, mercy and deliverance and most importantly we will bring joy to His heart and be a delight to Him forever. And may we remember to bend the knees of our hearts next time we pray.
I stand all amazed as I am lifted to Thy throne,
To see Thy soul and all that Thou art.
If I had the might to plant Thee in each heart
Of all that breathes,
In pursuit of such a quest I would walk the earth
With apparent ease.
I long to praise the magnitude of words I cannot find
That tell the glory that is Thine.
As I can do so little all my desires to meet,
I place my loyal love at Thy holy feet.
I carry my cross every day to the foot of Calvary
Where You carried yours so valiantly to the top;
I wait for You there to lift me
To meet You at the foot of Your gilded throne.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Behold the Man by Simon Dewey)
I often wonder how Adam and Eve felt when they found
themselves totally alone in the world. The consolation was that they were not
abandoned by God but were only separated from His physical presence. They were left
with a life-line called ‘prayer’ (Moses 5:4,5)
When an angel appeared to Adam and asked him why he
was offering sacrifice he taught him something very significant, the hierarchy
of the Godhead. He told him that he should ‘repent and call upon God in the
name of the Son forevermore’ (v eight). This was followed by the witness of the
Holy Ghost which bore record of the Father and the redeeming mission of the Son
(v 9).
Sometimes I wonder if our overwhelming focus on Christ
and His saving power diverts us from the Father’s supreme role within the Plan
of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation is the Father’s plan and the Saviour’s role
is to execute it through the power of His redemption.
I learnt recently through a personal experience why
the hierarchy of the Godhead needs to be followed, especially in regards to
prayer. We are to pray to the Father only, in the name of His Son and this is
why:
-
The
Saviour does nothing but the will of the Father (D&C 19:24; Moses 4;2; John 8:29; 10:17,18);
-
The
Saviour seeks to glorify the Father through whatever we ask in His name (John 14:13).
-
When
we pray to the Father through the name of the Son, we acknowledge He is the
author of the Plan of Salvation and that He is first in authority of the
Godhead. We acknowledge the Father’s
supreme sacrifice of His Son. If it wasn’t for the Father, there would have
been no submission by the Son.
There is one unique instance where the disciples
offered prayers to the Son instead of the Father and that was during the
Saviour’s visit to the Americas. Elder Bruce R. McConkie suggested that this
was on a one-time basis, and that they prayed to Him because He was as the
symbol of the Father before them. (“The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of
Christ” [1978] 560-561. The Saviour himself explained that the people were
praying to Him because, as He said, “I am with them” (3 Nephi 19:22); and
secondly, they were given by the Holy Ghost the words they should pray (3 Nephi
19:24).
This life-line we call prayer should be our second
nature and this is why: “One of the truths taught in Revelation 4 is that
exalted beings will continue to worship Heavenly Father in the eternities to
come. He will always be our God. (New Testament Student Manual, commentary for
Revelation 4:8-11).
The respect, the honour, the worship we should feel
towards our Father in Heaven can only be learnt through the example of His
Beloved Son: The Lord’s Prayer, His sacrament prayers, His intercessory prayer,
His prayers with the Nephites. We should be familiar with all the conversations
He had with the Father during His ministry and pray in likewise manner to bring
honour and glory to the Father’s name always…..and maybe a little less of “I
thank Thee and ask Thee” and a little more of “I praise Thee”…..
I knelt before Thy throne today
In praise of words You had to say.
They fell with ease from Your tongue
Coated gently with holy love.
My heart was opened
The heavens wept
Our union, a divine sacrament.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Lord's Prayer by Liz Lemon Swindle)
I am always deeply touched by the prayers that are recorded in the scriptures. I delight in reading such beautiful words of praise uttered by man. I am also saddened that our prayers today fall short somewhat of reverence and worship they used to be anciently and now tend to be mere one-way dialogues of thanks and petitions for help.
We mostly tend to speak to God in all too familiar and common way as if He is our friend and so godly respect gets somewhat lost. I struggle with this trying to find more ennobling words that would be fitting to be heard by the God of heaven and earth and all of creation.
I am reminded of Nephi who praised God ‘all day long’ as he was tied and suffering affliction at the hands of his brothers while they sailed to America (1 Nephi 18:16). I think of the Jaredites who sang praises to the Lord unceasingly for nearly a year as they were tossed upon the waves of the sea sailing to the same destination (Ether 6:9).
Do we know God well enough to be able to praise him? You cannot praise someone you do not know.
Some years ago I read about the prayer of King Manasseh who reigned for 50 years from 671 B.C. This king was the most loathed and cursed king in the history of Judah, the most idolatrous king who sacrificed his own son to a heathen god, added devotion of heavenly bodies and constellations to idol worship, who shed innocent blood of prophets and all the righteous men among Hebrews every day until he had filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other (2 Kings 21).
But something unexpected happened….Manasseh repented. When the Assyrians carried him off to Babylon he saw the error of his ways and went to the Lord with the most profound prayer that is today known as The Prayer of Manasseh. A reference to the prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in 2 Chronicles 33:18-9. The prayer is deemed to be Apocryphal by the Jews and Christians alike and is used by some Christian Churches today. These are the words that touched my heart the most because they were uttered from the very depth of Manasseh’s heart:
“O Lord, God of our fathers…unending and immeasurable are your promised mercies….O Lord I am justly afflicted because I did evil things before you….And now behold I AM BENDING THE KNEES OF MY HEART…”
Have you ever heard a prayer of repentance as touching as this??? How endearing do you think this was to God?
Manasseh’s prayer is today considered as one that pays tribute to the merciful heart of God. Praying to God acknowledging His providence, mercy, grace, kindness, love and all the perfect attributes He possesses will bring us nearer to His throne because of the humility which will grow in our hearts and which will endear us to the God of heaven. Therein we will find God’s listening ear, His mercy and deliverance and most importantly we will bring joy to His heart and be a delight to Him forever.
I long to praise Thee
With magnitude of words I cannot find
That tell the glory that is Thine.
As I can do so little this desire to meet,
I place my loyal love at Thy holy feet.
Here is what I admire
the most about Nephi. Cast your mind on the journey to America when his
brothers bound him with bands that caused terrible swelling of joints and
caused Nephi unbearable pain (1 Nephi 18:12-15) . I am sure most of us would at
this point wonder why God was not protecting us from our adversaries if we were
obeying all of His commands. But not Nephi. He knew God had a purpose (1 Nephi
18:11) so there was only one solution to this in his mind and that was to
praise God. And not just once. He records that he praised God all day
long, despite the pain which would have had the power to discourage the
strongest among us (1 Nephi 18:16).
Praising God in the
midst of one’s pain and suffering would have to be the next level of gratitude,
and the next level of acceptance, and the next level of endurance. Nephi rose
to the challenge well and showed just how strong was his commitment to God and
his conviction that the life he was pursuing was aligned with His will. According
to Joseph Smith, this is called true faith in God (Lecture 3, Lectures on Faith).
And who can better testify to this fact than Joseph Smith??? Well, there is one
person….and we all know who that is. Had the Saviour not been willing to live His
life in alignment with the Father’s will, all would now be lost. I do not see
anywhere in the scriptures that there were more than two volunteers to bring us
back….the other one does not bear thinking.
One interesting point
about this alignment….it comes with an attachment called ‘opposition’. Nephi’s
brothers opposed him at every turn to the point where they sought his life.
Joseph endured persecution from the time Moroni visited him at age 14 until he
was killed. And what of Christ? For the three years of His ministry, the Jewish
Council was calling for His blood until in the end they succeeded.
The sincere followers
of truth who are seeking to align themselves with God’s will in every possible
way will have the jaws of hell at their heels. Like Nephi, we have bands that
bind us today. They are threatening our way of life and our happiness. Not
until the Millennial peace, will this life ever be without its' opposing
threats to our spiritual and physical well-being. What would happen if instead
of whining and constant demands we are making to God, we just praised Him
during prayer? Would we come to the point where like Nephi, we could praise Him
all day long? Would hopelessness not lose its' grip on us as our thoughts are
continually focused on the Prince of Peace rather than the turmoil that
surrounds us?
When you have nothing
to say to God, praise instead. When your heart is heavy, praise. When you are
doubting, praise. When you cannot see clearly, praise. When you don’t
understand, praise. When you are hurting, praise. When you are waiting, praise.
When your cup is full, praise. When gratitude overwhelms you, praise. When in
mercy you see His hand, praise. Practice, for one day you surely will kneel at
His feet and the words of praise will spill from your tongue like a holy flame.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Peace Is Coming by Jon McNaughton)
Did you miss Your throne divine
When You crossed the threshold of the stable?
And did You clutch my
worth inside You
That made Your mortal task divinely able?
I heard the angels in the field
Sing praises to Your name;
And I sorrowed knowing, like holy water,
Your love would spill on sacrificial altar.
I cannot look at the Saviour’s birth without being reminded of His death. Every time I see the baby in the manger these words echo in my mind: “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world….” (John 18:37). You cannot have birth without death and you cannot have death without birth.
When I think of both, my consolation comes from remembering that the jubilation of Christ’s birth was outdone by the jubilation upon His return in triumph beyond the veil. Imagine the tears of sorrow at the cross and compare them to tears of celebration and gratitude that greeted the Saviour as He entered the spirit world: “And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality…they were filled with joy and gladness and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand….while this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful…..And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer, and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell. Their countenances shone and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto His holy name….” (D&C 138:12-18; 23-24)
And what of us who had not yet been born in mortality? We who awaited the return of Him who knew our earthly lives before we did? I imagine the gratitude would have been overwhelming. I imagine we fell down before Him in adoration and praise, knowing our salvation was secure and that the Atonement was fixed and in place to enable us to endure our tribulations and resist the evil forces that would seek to destroy us. I imagine that the very heavens echoed the shouts of our praise. I imagine we wept tears of exquisite joy as we saw our God take His place upon His throne and I imagine all eternity shook as we cried with one voice: “Glory and honour, and power, and might, be ascribed to our God…..let the sun, moon and morning stars sing together and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!” (D&C 84:102; 128:23)
- - Cathryne
Allen, (Art: Born This Day by Liz Lemon Swindle)
“Our Father who art in heaven. God is our Father, the father of our spirits, we are his children, his offspring, literally. We lived in his presence, dwelt in his courts, and have seen his face. We were as well acquainted with him then as we are with our mortal fathers now. He is a holy man, has a body of flesh and bones, and dwells in a heavenly abode. When we approach his throne in prayer, we think not only that he is the Almighty, by whose word the earth, the sidereal heavens, and the universe came into being, but that he is a gracious and loving Father whose chief interest and concern is his family, and that he wants all his children to love and serve him and to become like him. Perfect prayer manifests our personal relationship to him who hears and answers the petitions of the faithful.
Hallowed be thy name. ‘We approach thee in awe – reverentially – in the spirit of worship and thanksgiving, and we praise thy holy name. Thou art glorious beyond anything we can envision; all that is good we ascribe unto thee, and we desire to consecrate our life and being unto thee, for thou hast made us, and we are thine’.”
(Bruce R McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 2, p 148-9)
You see me Father,
Despite heaven’s vast expanse,
You hear the burning beat of my heart
Amidst the numberless host of heaven.
You cherish me,
More than the stars that encircle Thy throne;
Thy greatness is endless,
Thy power sublime.
In my appointed hour,
Carry me home
In the strength of Thy loving arms.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Lord's Prayer by Liz Lemon Swindle)
