Mighty prayer is best learned by experience, so I am inviting you to experience it, as you apply it to community development issues. Then I will encourage you to use what you have learned about mighty prayer to address with the Lord all the concerns of your heart. I can’t tell you everything to ask or pray about, but I can give you enough to get you started. Our Savior will take you from there. 

Today, I want to paint a picture for you of the kind of effort it takes to engage in mighty prayer. My daughter jokingly asked me recently, “You think it is just that easy?” And I thought, “ No, I know it’s not that easy. But I also know it’s worth it.” Mighty prayer does take some effort on our part. What kind of effort? Let me tell you a couple of stories. 

The first story is about a conversation I had with my sister. She taught me about wrestling with the Lord for the answers. She said that as she prayed about this idea of wrestling with the Lord for the answers she imagined this particular kind of wrestling where two opponents sit facing one another with their feet together. They grasp a long stick or broom handle between them and bracing against their opponent’s feet they try to pull him off-balance with the stick. I have played this game, myself. It’s kinda fun, but I have never had enough strength to win at this game. I can’t imagine taking on the Lord as my opponent in this game. And that is what my sister told me. She said that she learned that wrestling with the Lord is different than wrestling against the Lord. Think about sitting across from the Savior pulling with all your might. Now, think about sitting on the same side of the stick as the Savior and pulling with all your might and all His might against your opponent. My sister taught me to position myself on the Savior’s side of the stick and wrestle with Him, never against Him. 

So, how do we do that?

• We must align our will with His. He cannot deviate from His perfect ways. He will not deviate. If we want to team up with Him, we must adopt His ways. But it’s for our own good. I like to remember that when I want what God wants I always get my way. 
• We must seek to understand His word, not to refute His word. Don’t argue with Him. Ask Him. Come prepared to accept His answers. Trust that He knows the right answers. Faith and humility are required. 
• Come prepared to let God change your mind about things. Come prepared to let Him change your attitudes and feelings about things. Come prepared to let Him change your heart. Any changes you let the Lord make will ultimately make you more Christlike.
• Work together with the Lord. Go after the answers together. Dig together. Use the abilities, talents and gifts He gives you. Give it your best efforts. Turn to Him to apply His power and wisdom. 
• Let Him lead the way. Ask for His opinion. Consult with Him. Listen to Him. Follow His directions. Return and report to Him and ask for further direction.

Those are some of the things that I have learned as I have applied this lesson about wrestling with the Lord and never against Him.

I want to tell you another story that illustrates the kind of effort we must expend to engage in mighty prayer. This story comes from the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am only going to tell you enough of the story to illustrate my points, but here is a link to where you can read more of the story for yourself and how you can contact missionaries who can answer any questions you might have about these historical events. 

 The story is about two men, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God in the 1800’s. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and they sent angels and Biblical prophets to teach and train him for the work they called him to do. One of the angels brought Joseph a sacred record of God’s dealings with ancient civilizations and he brought him instruments that gave him the ability to translate the record into English by the power of God. Oliver Cowdery was called by God to assist Joseph. He witnessed many of the events and visitations that Joseph experienced and he served as the scribe as Joseph translated the ancient record.   

While working on this translation project, Oliver wanted a chance to do the translating by the power of God, so the two men asked God if Oliver could be permitted to take on the role of translator. Oliver did get permission, but he did not find it so easy. He was not really able to translate the way Joseph was. The Lord explained some things to Oliver about receiving revelation, and this is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord said to Oliver, 

“Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your own mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it be right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you will feel that it is right. But if it be not right, you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.” (Doctrine & Covenants Section 9 verses 7-9)

There are several principles here, so let’s pick it apart so we can find them.   

• It says: “you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.” Evidently, there’s more to it than to simply ask God for it. Is that a little bit like asking Dad to play catch with you without bringing your glove? What do we need to do to receive the answers we ask for? We have to try to catch them. This takes effort. This takes energy. And this takes practice.
• Then it says: “But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your own mind.” For many years I misunderstood this principle. I thought I had to do everything in my power to figure things out before I prayed for answers, and I only prayed as a last resort, when I couldn’t get an answer on my own. The Bible tells me to “trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not unto my own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5-6) But I was leaning to my own understanding until I had exhausted all my resources. This can’t be right. It wasn’t until I considered these words, “study it out in your own mind,” in the context of the historical events that I learned the principle God was trying to teach Oliver. This was given during the translation project. Joseph was not studying ancient languages and code breaking in an attempt to study this out in his own mind and then taking a transcript of what he thought it said to the Lord to ask if it was correct. He never leaned to his own understanding on this project. Every account records that he translated the words with the help of the instruments the angel delivered to him with the record and he did it by the gift and power of God. What did Joseph study out in his own mind? He studied the words and ideas that he was receiving by revelation out in his own mind. This is what God was teaching Oliver about receiving revelation and answers. Mighty prayer requires mental exertion.
• Then he asked God if the ideas were true as he understands them, giving the Lord an opportunity to correct him on any misunderstandings. It is so important to practice asking yes and no questions like “Is this true?” and “is this really from God?” and “Do you want me to do it this way?” Yes and no questions bring confirmation of truth and revelatory instructions. We use them to ask if the answers we receive are right. Yes and no questions are part of the process God expects us to engage in and despite this description of feeling a burning in your bosom if it is right or experiencing a stupor of thought if it is wrong, everyone needs to know for themselves how it feels when God says this is right and what it feels like when God says this is wrong, and the only way to know is to experience it.

So, from this story I learned that mighty prayer is a process like working on a project that requires thinking and reasoning and trying hard to understand what we are receiving from the Lord. And it requires us to ask for verification of the things we think we understand to give God an opportunity to correct our misunderstandings. And that means mighty prayer takes time. I have to invest time and effort to get the answers I need. The good news is that I can pray at every step of the process and I don’t have to wait to pray as a last resort. And since I know how to position myself on the same side of the stick with my Savior, He will be pulling with me and pulling for me as I wrestle for the answers.