Episode 75. The Power of Asking: Why Pray for Something I Can Do For Myself

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Do you find yourself only praying for things you can’t do on your own? When you think about your day and you begin to pray, do you only think about asking for help with those things that seem bigger than you and your abilities? Doing that isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing, but you are leaving a huge source of power on the table when you don’t ask for help with the things you CAN do on your own.

Now before I jump in and talk about why asking for help with things you can do on your own will benefit you, I want to walk you through a quick analogy that you can bring up next time you kneel to pray. I want you to think about all the duties it takes to run your household. Like all the chores, responsibilities or daily tasks it takes to run your household. Now when you think of those duties and go down the list, if you HAD to do each one of them, maybe not all in one day, but if asked could you do most of them? I bet you could, it may take some time to do it but you probably could, right?

Well you probably don’t do all of those duties in your household though, you have others helping you. Just because you CAN do them on your own doesn’t mean you NEED to do them all by yourself. There are reasons you ask for help in your house. And there are reasons that asking in prayer for help with things you can do on your own is beneficial and empowering.

The first reason why we need to ask for things we can do on our own is that it creates humility. Elder Hamilton of the seventy in the April 2022 General Conference said that the “The Lord’s condition for change is humility. If they humble themselves before me,” He said. The opposite of humility is pride. Pride exists when we think we know better—when what we think or feel takes priority over what God thinks or feels.”

It is common to get into a routine and think we know better on what needs to be done. When we start having pride in the priorities of our day without including the Lord in ALL that we do, we might be excluding God in our lives. That can be a dangerous place to be.

God offers us power to become more than we could imagine and if we think or feel like we know better, than we run the risk of not allowing God to help us change and become like Him. Which is our ultimate goal here on on earth. To have experiences that allow us to become like Him. it doesn’t have to be the big experiences. If we include Him in our prayers in the small things we think we have figured out, He will make more of us than we could ever imagine.

The second reason for asking for help with things you can do on your own is because it builds a relationship with God. When you ask for help in your prayers and allow God to help, you are stepping into the yoke with Christ. Working side by side on a common goal. This is where you begin to have faith in Him and trust Him. Working side by side with the Savior in the small things builds your faith and trust in Him in the big things. President Nelson has said “It is our faith that unlocks the power of God in our lives.” This relationship you are building in small ways everyday, asking for His help with the little things is what unlocks the power you need for the big things in your life. 

Lastly, asking for help with things you can do on your own is beneficial is because He can make weak things strong. Think about it, there is only so much that your mortal body can do in one day. However, WITH Christ you can do all things. Because we have fallen bodies on this Earth, we have limitations to our abilities each day. However, through Christ we are strengthened, enabled and guided to do His will. When we ask for help with the things we think we have figured out, He can add to those tasks allowing us to do more than we could do on our own. 

Just like the chores in your house that you could do all on your own, you don’t because you get more done when you ask for help. It allows you to spend time in other places that you are needed. It teaches others in your house responsibility.  You can learn so much from the process of asking for help with things you can already do on your own.

On last weeks podcast I talked about my process of how I use my Seeking Personal Revelation Journal to help me ask for help from God everyday with the things that I am facing that day. This allows me to be humble, build a relationship with God and get strength beyond my own to accomplish his will. 

My Meaningful Prayer Journals are a mini version of my Seeking Personal Revelation Journal that just focuses on the prayer aspect of revelation. Both are wonderful tools to help you start working on asking for help with things you can already do on your own. 

THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING. They are fast approaching and there are a few gifts that usually you are scrambling to think of ideas for last minute and that’s your friends, neighbors or ministering sisters. Well not this year, I got you covered. The Meaningful Prayer Journals are a powerful yet inexpensive gift that helps your gift receiver build a stronger relationship with God through prayer so they can feel Christ's enabling power, see the hand of God in their life and prioritize their day through the Spirit. And this is also a fabulous gift for relief society presidencies to give out. When you purchase in bulk for your relief society sisters, I offer a 25% DISOUNT And this year I am even adding in a free virtual fireside called 5 Ways to Hear Him More in Your Life. This can be scheduled anytime in the next 6 months. Order yours TODAY!