October 22, 2014- Testimony in Prayer

Weekly Training Meeting

October 22, 2014

To Complete Assignment: Write Lisanne an email about what you learned from the study below. Write a follow-up email about how your prayers are changing.

Announcements:

• If you sign up for an appointment with Lisanne, BE THERE.
• Lisanne is teaching VC this week… you can come observe

Group Study:

What are Cultural identifications of mormon prayers?

(Class Insight)

• Remove our hat
• Dear Heavenly Father
• Expect a “good feeling” whenever we pray
• thank you for this day
• Really long winded
• Zone out when others pray
• thank thee for this day
• please bless this food
• all our many blessings
• no preparation
• no conscious effort to achieve it for ourself
• help us drive home safe
• have the spirit to be with us
• close our eyes
• go right back to what we were doing after it is over
• bless me/us to have a good day
• bless the missionaries that they can be lead to…
• Name of Jesus Christ, Amen
• Thankful/Grateful for….
• bless us to do well at
• bless we’ll be safe
• forgive us of our shortcomings
• bless those that aren’t here and that they can come next time
• apply in our lives
• that we will be able to

What should our prayers be evidence of?

(Class Insight)

• we wish the same as Christ
• our repentance
• aligning our will with our Father’s will for us
• qualifies us for eternal life
• our duty to God
• relationship with God 
• Faith in Him
• Our willingness to be blessed
• A broken heart and a contrite spirit
• we pray in the name of Christ when we have the mind of Christ, when our wishes are the wishes of Christ
• Prayer is a form of work
• our need for help from the Godhead
• willingness to work for the blessings we seek 
• gratitude and recognition for what God/Christ has done for us
• sacrifice
• directed to the temple
• prayers not answered when we pray our own wishes and not Christ’s
• our faith, our willingness to repent, our love for God/ourself/others
• our understanding of Christ’s desires

Testimony and Prayer

Study the following scriptures on prayer and pay attention to testimony in the prayer. 

Ether 3:4-5

Ether 12:29

2 Nephi 4:19, 30, 34, 35

2 Nephi 7:7

Alma 26:12

2 Nephi 33:4

1 Nephi 7:17

Jacob 7:14

Find your own

What would adding testimony to your prayers do?

Evaluate the scriptures with the following:

(feel free to add to this chart other categories that come to mind)

Practice:

• Practice prayer focusing on testimony
• Eliminiate Mormon culture

(Prayers should be 90 seconds or less—this will give lots of practices and chances for feedback)

Evaluate:

• What are you learning?
• How is testimony impacting prayer?
• What feedback is helping you?

Invitation:

• Implement testimony this week
• Cut out cultural items
• Tell someone about it or write in your journal about the effect