Christ's humility in praying to the Father has always amazed me. He who proclaimed himself to be the life of the world, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (3 Nephi 9:18), a god in his own right, knelt upon the ground with the Nephites and prayed, but not just any prayer, for the scriptures record "....The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvellous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father" (3 Nephi 17:16).
What did He say? What words could He have possibly used to express such high regard and affection toward the Father He so loved? Verse 15 states that what He prayed about cannot be written. Perhaps because there was some revelatory content of that prayer that we could not sufficiently understand on this mortal level. I also know that some heavenly manifestations and revelations cannot be put into words because our earthly language is inadequate. I mostly suspect it was the latter and that Jesus spoke words of utmost respect and devotion, of love and adoration, of submission and gratitude that there were no adequate words to describe it.
Another significant prayer of which we have a record is the one the Saviour uttered at the Last Supper which we know as the ‘intercessory prayer’, and which could only be addressed to none but the Father whom He loved and longed to be with again (John 17):
“It has been called, and not inappropriately, the Lord’s High-Priestly Prayer. In it Jesus acknowledged the Father as the source of His power and authority, which authority extends even to the giving of eternal life to all who are worthy….With unfathomable love the Lord pleaded for those whom the Father had given Him, the apostles then present, who had been called out from the world, and who had been true to their testimony of Himself as the Son of God.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 609)
We too can speak such sublime words of worship. We can be given those words by the power of the Holy Ghost and we can speak with the tongue of angels each time we bend our knees and come before the throne of God who yearns to gather us into his bosom and bring us home (2 Nephi 32:2)
There is another form of prayer and that is a prayer of power. At the Last Supper, Jesus directed his disciples for the first time to pray to the Father in His name with assurance of success in supplication: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:13,14). The name of Jesus Christ was to be thenceforth the divinely established talisman by which the powers of heaven could be invoked to operate in any righteous undertaking.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 603)
The prayer of power is not just any simple prayer with the mention of the Saviour’s name at the end. For it to glorify the Father, the supplication needs to be a submitted in conjunction with professed faith in Jesus Christ. Just mentioning Him at the end of the prayer is not sufficient in my mind.
A story of Alma and Amulek from the Book of
Mormon is an ideal example of this: Alma, and his convert and missionary companion, Amulek, found themselves
in captivity in the most wicked city where they sat in a dungeon naked,
suffering hunger, thirst, and physical abuse by their captors (Alma 14:18-23).
In the extremity of their captivity, Alma offered the
most heart-wrenching petition to God: “How long shall we suffer these great
afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which
is in Christ, even unto deliverance. ” (Alma 14:26). The cords which held
Alma and Amulek bound were broken instantly, the earth shook mightily, and the
walls of the prison were rent in twain. Alma and Amulek went out of the prison,
“and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them power, according
to their faith which was in Christ.” (v 28)
There is no greater prayer than the prayer
uttered through faith in Jesus Christ. I bear witness of this because I too was
a recipient of deliverance. Through my greatest trial in life, I prayed using
these words: “through my faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement,
I ask for the healing of my heart…….”.
It was a deliverance from pain I felt would split my chest open. The
healing came within weeks of consistent pleading through my unshaken faith in
Him who has bled that I might live.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
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