“Prayer is essential to developing faith,” taught Sister Carol F. McConkie, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, during the Saturday morning session of general conference, Oct. 1.
“We are children of a loving Heavenly Father and we may enjoy personal communion with Him when we pray ‘with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ’ (Romans 10:13) and then act in accordance with the answers we receive by the promptings of the Holy Ghost,” she said.
A prayer of faith opens the way to receiving heaven-sent blessings such as miraculous healing, powerful protection, divine knowledge, liberating forgiveness and precious peace.
“We pray to our Father, in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost, thus engaging all three members of the Godhead in our utterances,” Sister McConkie explained.
Members pray to Heavenly Father and only Him because He is “God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting … the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:17).
Members pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Sister McConkie continued, because their salvation is in Christ.
“We come unto the Father in the sacred name of Jesus Christ because He is our advocate with the Father and He does plead our cause. He suffered, bled and died to glorify His Father, and His merciful petition on our behalf opens the way for each of us to obtain peace in this life and everlasting life in the world to come,” Sister McConkie said.
Members pray by the power of the Holy Ghost because, “He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 46:30). Sister McConkie shared the example of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane who, in agony, pleaded, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39).
“The cup was not removed,” Sister McConkie noted. “But in times of trouble our prayers become a lifeline of love and tender mercy.”
