Lessons from Enos

Enos 1:4-12 I'm asking Enos to teach me about prayer. He tells us how he prayed and received answers, but happily, he doesn't just say, "I prayed." Here are some quotes:

• I ^ccried unto him in mighty ^dprayer and supplication . . .
• . . . all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
• I did ^cpour out my whole soul unto God . . .
  
• . . . struggling in the spirit . . .
  
• I ^cprayed unto him with many long ^dstrugglings . . .
  
• . . . after I had ^aprayed and labored with all diligence . . .

I don't know how to do that. I pray, yes, all the time. Sometimes I feel very close to God as I pray. But often I feel that my mind has been elsewhere and the Lord is shaking His head at me, wondering when I'll learn how to pray.

But Enos was not one to give up easily. As you can see, he prayed for long periods, and with mighty prayer and strugglings, and with his whole soul and with all diligence. I don't know how to do that. I run out of things to say after about 5 minutes. And I don't think the Lord wants to hear me repeat the same thing over and over.

My friend Curtis would remind me that we don't need to have prayer marathons. That the Lord can hear us and respond to our needs after shorter amounts on our knees.

Now that I mention it, every time I read this account, I wonder why the Lord made Enos struggle so much for his final request. I'll quote it: I ^cprayed unto him with many long ^dstrugglings for my brethren, the Lamanites.

12 And it came to pass that after I had ^aprayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy ^bdesires, because of thy faith.

13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be ^adestroyed, and the Lamanites should not be ^bdestroyed, that the Lord God would ^cpreserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be ^dbrought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be ^ebrought unto salvation . . .

He covenanted with me that he would ^cbring ^dthem forth unto the Lamanites in his own due time. . .

18 And the Lord said unto me: Thy fathers have also required of me this thing; and it shall be done unto them according to their faith; for their faith was like unto thine.


So my question is, why did the Lord require Enos to struggle and labor with all diligence if He was going to give him what he wanted anyway; if He had already promised other prophets the same thing? The answer, of course, is that the prayer itself was a blessing to Enos. The struggling and labor were for Enos' benefit. Prayer is not a trial, it's not a duty, it's not a punishment. It should be like sitting down with your best friend to talk about things that are dear to your heart. I want to learn to pray like that.