By Rod Johnson

Rodric believes Moroni included special instruction for Modern times and wants to share his unique perspective the same way Moroni shared in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts

First Step in True Pattern of Prayer - Address God

"Father in Heaven ..."

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Seeking Out God,  Calling On Him in Prayer is Firststep to Making Sure Our Prayers Are Heard

When addressing God, call Him! 

 It is common courtesy to call the name of the person to whom we speak when we begin a conversation with that person. God is no different in this respect. We give Him the same respect that we afford each other. We should call on Heavenly Father in prayer by His title of Heavenly Father, Father, or God.
Now, there are times when there is the understood address to God. The understood address is when we address our thoughts to the person and just start speaking--usually, because that person is the only one in the room, or because we are with that person in some respect.
God can be addressed in this manner also, as I have often addressed my thoughts to Him and started speaking. However, it is preferable to call on Him.
The sad but true fact that devils can hear spoken prayers and even answer them warrants that we specify to whom we speak so that we cannot be deceived. It is also important to develop a long-term relationship with God so that when we call Him we know and recognize His voice when we hear it.
His voice is a still small voice of a tender parent that we must seek and be familiar with when we pray. God does hear our prayers and answers when we call on Him.
As often as children call parents by name to get their attention, we should call Father in Heaven to focus on His attention.

God is our Father


We refer to Him as Father in Heaven. Jesus in John 20:17 is recorded instructing Mary after revealing Himself to her following His resurrection
"... go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Among other things Christ taught, he revealed implicitly that God the Father is the Father of all of humankind.
He is the father of our spirits. Before everything was created physically, it was spiritually created--including us! God revealed to Moses that before he created anything physically upon the earth, he organized it spiritually (Moses 3:5).
Adam and Eve are the sources of all the physical bodies indirectly that came following them making us all cousins. God is the source of our spirits making us all siblings. There is no ancestor who separates us from God.
We are His direct and immediate family spiritually. We are siblings. As such, we have the same Father in Heaven whom we should address as such.
Think of the children in our lives and how often they call on a parent's name. As a parent, I hear from my six children my name from the time they awake until they are asleep. Sometimes I hear my name in the night!
As often as children call parents by name to get their attention, we should call Father in Heaven to focus on His attention.
It makes sense to call God by name when considering His parental responsibility to us. Knowing God is understanding that He is our Father. Knowing that He is our Father helps us to also know that He will listen and answer when we call Him.

We may also call Him Lord or God.









It is important when speaking to Him that we call His name so that we direct our attention towards Him. As an all-powerful being, God knows all things.

He knows when we are speaking to Him because He knows our hearts and can sense our thoughts. Even with that knowledge, He acts for us when we address Him properly.

As a part of the Plan of Salvation that God has created for us, God allows us to experience life as it comes. During this experience of life, we are expected to call on Him in prayer to communicate with Him.

Seeking out God and calling on Him in prayer is the first step to making sure our prayers are heard.

Recap on the Step of Prayer:


  1. So the first step is to Address God in prayer.
  2. The second step is to Thank God for what he has already given.
  3. The third step is to Ask God for the things that we need and want.
  4. The fourth step is to Close in the Name of Jesus Christ.

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The Health Benefits of Prayer

Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude in prayer is God's remedy to the stresses of the day. If humans pray as often as instructed by Christ, which is to pray always, then the balm of gratitude will rejuvenate always.
The mode and manner of prayer differs for each occasion. There are the formal prayers (personal, family and couple), prayers for blessing food, public prayers and many other types.
If all the prayers are being observed, we will find that we are constantly saying some type of prayer to Father in Heaven.

How is that healthy to be in constant Prayer?


Prayer Provides Physical Benefits

It is a known fact that the more time we spend meditating and ordering our thoughts the less stress interferes with our physical aging and body deficiencies.
Studies completed by the University of Rochester and Dr. Randolph Byrd of the San Francisco General Medical Centre suggest that those who participate in or are the subject of prayer tend to fare better than those who do not have that mental exercise.

Dr Chittaranjan Andrade

Dr Andrade is an experienced research methodologist with considerable expertise in statistical analysis.
Dr Andrade is an experienced research methodologist with considerable expertise in statistical analysis.
Dr. Chittaranjan Andrade of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore concedes,
Interestingly, spiritual meditation has been found to be superior to secular meditation and relaxation in terms of decrease in anxiety and improvement in positive mood, spiritual health, spiritual experiences and tolerance to pain.
The body and the mind work together. It is a psychological fact that people of Faith have happier and more stable environments and experience less of all mental and health diseases.
The power of the mind over the body is psychological proof. Prayer fits in the category of helping us to order our thoughts and evaluate our daily actions for many of us.
We use the time to reflect on the day and evaluate our actions to see if they fit in line with our beliefs.
Asking for forgiveness or resolving to change removes stress from our lives so that we may focus on the next challenge.
Prayer leads us to move on more quickly in many instances. With less stress, we tend to look younger and become sick less often because we worry less.
Prayer helps us stay young and live longer. Prayer also motivates the body to heal itself better because of positive thinking.
Our physical bodies have a natural process to want to live coded in the DNA. Because of this drive, in many cases where science can do nothing more, prayer works.
Without faith, however, prayer is powerless; so faith must also have a large factor in prayer. Prayer also helps those with serious illness bear the burdens associated with the illnesses such as constant pain or lack of ability so that the condition does not become worse.

Prayer Provides Psychological Benefits

Prayer is a stress reliever as mentioned before, but it also helps us to focus our minds to avoid mental illness in many cases.
Since prayer is a time of reflections, for the educated at least it can help them to decide to submit to new treatments of mental disorders. Educated people of faith benefit from medical science in psychology because they tend to believe that God provides all the knowledge that man has that helps the human body.
Instead of believing in possession in all cases, they accept that it may be schizophrenia instead which leads to treatment. We then pray for the drugs to work properly giving the mental support the drugs need to flow through the system.
Also Prayer helps us to move past grief and loss, which can cause serious health complications and mental fracturing. I know frompersonal experience how such things can occur. Long-term health issues and loss can crush the human spirit if there is no avenue for the individual to overcome the situation by looking beyond the money. Some times all prayer can do is help the person remain in the moment without giving over to it.
When we have a problem, we run to God in prayer. He is a constant parent and source of psychological health. He is, for most Christians, a source of unyielding acceptance and trust. He may not remove our trial, but He will listen and comfort us to help those of us who have faith to accept our situation to see the good in a bad situation.
Most importantly prayer requires humility. Humility teaches us to accept Gods will. The willingness to accept His will can prevent us from overreacting to situations that would otherwise cause great mental and physical harm. Prayer fuels the faith of the each person who believes to have the power to accept any situation.

Kenneth Pargament, Ph.D

An internationally recognized leader in psychology and religion, begins his tenure as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for Spirituality and Health
An internationally recognized leader in psychology and religion, begins his tenure as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for Spirituality and Health
Frazier is a leading investigator in three broad areas: causal explanations for traumatic events, post-traumatic stress, and personal growth after trauma.
Frazier is a leading investigator in three broad areas: causal explanations for traumatic events, post-traumatic stress, and personal growth after trauma.
B.S. in Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, University of Minnesota
B.S. in Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, University of Minnesota
Source: Andrew Tix
Psychologist Kenneth Pargament, PhD, of Bowling Green State University reveals the following:
The research is showing that spiritual dimensions brought into therapy can add something distinctive to health and well-being. "People ask, 'Is religion just another version of a healthy social support or a positive system of meaning?' We're finding that there's something special about the religious dimension that cannot be easily reduced to traditional psychological constructs.
He references the research completed by Patricia Frazier and Andrew Tix, PhD, other psychologist who work at the University of Minnesota that indicates that patients having kidney transplants who appeal to God or some supreme power for support had greater satisfaction in life after the surgery than those who did not as reported by Karen Kersting of the Monitor.
There is not empirical proof that prayer directly heals withing science, but there is evidence that such mental focus aids in the battling of disease and outlook. The mind is connected to the body and controls the process that maintains the body. Mentally focused individuals do have positive affects on the healing process of both mental and physical maladies.

Prayer is a Source of Self-Actualization

Carl Rogers taught that concept of actualization when we have some one who is the source of unconditionally positive regard. This means that no matter how criminal, foul or evil the person, someone loves that person unconditionally lacking judgement. It is amazing the therapeutic nature to have one person, even if the person is yourself, to love and regard you no matter what you may or may not do or be.
We can approach God in the same hope! He loves us and cares for us no matter our circumstances and will never turn us away. though ultimately He will judge us, but not as the world judges. No matter how much we may think otherwise, He always hears and answers our earnest prayers, always! No matter the vilest sinner we may be, He will still accept our words and give us comfort if we seek. No, He does not take away the punishment if we are wrong or prevent the trial if it will help us grow, but He will always love and accept us as we are no matter how far we may fall from His grace.
Knowing that we have someone like Him in our corner throughout life gives us a confidence that there is hope, even when there appears to be none left.
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Today is (((((THE))))) Day!

I have now decided that since my life has changed so much in the last few years I need to put some of those changes out here for the world to view. In doing so, I know that I open up my life to many people to "consider." I am no fool though. I have a wife who will really let me have it if I write the wrong thing, because I have had it so many times in the past.

I just graduated with my master in adult education and want to teach at university, or more realistically, a community college.

What's more is that I enrolled in another degree program! I hesitant to say it, but it is another master degree. This goes against all of my training at the University of Phoenix and my personal philosophy about higher education.

I would never encourage a person to gain a second master degree when there exist doctoral degrees! Standing in the line to have my degree bestowed upon me a fellow alumni called me a career student. I took issue with that label because I have a reason that I decided to do another degree. The only thing is, I based it off personal revelation that may be too special of a nature to put out for the entire public to view at will.

I mention this because I wonder in choosing the right, if we really pay attention to the revelations we get from God and if we understand how to apply those revelations to our current situation without misinterpretation.

 I have learned from personal experience that sometimes the things that God reveals to us may not make sense at the time we open ourselves to the revelation; but in time, if we follow the will of the Lord as did Nephi of old, God's purposes will come to our view.

 So, today is the day that I remember to trust in the Lord by doing all I can to make it and praying like it is all up to God if I make it in the process. I have always been able to succeed that way. Read my articles at
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