Prayers for Peace

Some of you, perhaps many, are not feeling the peace the Lord promised. You may have prayed for personal peace and spiritual comfort. Yet you may feel that the heavens are silent to your pleading for peace. There is an enemy of your soul who does not want you and those you love to find peace. He cannot enjoy it. He works to prevent you from even wanting to find the peace the Savior and our Heavenly Father desire you to have.

President Henry B. Eyring, “Finding Personal Peace,” General Conference, April 2023

What does His peace look like for you this week?

In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited. In the growth we all have to experience in mortality, the spiritual equivalent of this boy’s affliction or this parent’s desperation is going to come to all of us. When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” General Conference, April 2013

List the commotions in your life. What has you nervous or anxious?

As you and I face challenges and tests in our lives, the gift of faith and an appropriate sense of personal confidence that reaches beyond our own capacity are two examples of the tender mercies of the Lord. Repentance and forgiveness of sins and peace of conscience are examples of the tender mercies of the Lord. And the persistence and the fortitude that enable us to press forward with cheerfulness through physical limitations and spiritual difficulties are examples of the tender mercies of the Lord.

Elder David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” General Conference, April 2005

Name the burden you are carrying. Then record what it would mean for that burden to be made light without being removed.

I remember very vividly the day after day that I walked over to the temple and ascended up to the fourth floor where we have our solemn assemblies, where we have our meetings of the Twelve and the Presidency. And after everybody had gone out of the temple, I knelt and prayed. And I prayed with such a fervency, I tell you! I knew that something was before us that was extremely important to many of the children of God. And I knew that we could receive the revelations of the Lord only by being worthy and ready for them and ready to accept them and to put them into place. Day after day I went and with great solemnity and seriousness, alone in the upper rooms of the Temple, and there I offered my soul and offered our efforts to go forward with the program… we said, “Lord, we want only what is right… we want it when you want it and not until.”

President Spencer W. Kimball, recounted in Edward L. Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (2005), ch. 22 — on his prayers leading up to the 1978 revelation on the priesthood

What will you have the courage and humility to ask, seek, and knock for this week?

Finally, in desperation, he spoke to me with considerable emotion: “Dr. Nelson, I have prayed for help and have been directed to you. The Lord will not reveal to me how to repair that second valve, but He can reveal it to you. Your mind is so prepared. If you will operate upon me, the Lord will make it known to you what to do. Please perform the operation that I need, and pray for the help that you need.” His great faith had a profound effect upon me. How could I turn him away again? Following a fervent prayer together, I agreed to try.

President Russell M. Nelson, “Sweet Power of Prayer,” General Conference, April 2003

Write the prayer you would say if no one was listening but Him.

Tears filled my eyes as I stood with you to sing that stirring hymn of the Restoration. Near the conclusion of the singing, to my mind came this verse from the Book of Mormon: “But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.” My mind was drawn immediately to Nephi’s phrase “the tender mercies of the Lord,” and I knew in that very moment I was experiencing just such a tender mercy. A loving Savior was sending me a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance through a hymn selected weeks previously.

Elder David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” General Conference, April 2005

Write a few things you'll be praying for in your heart this week.

I have had many warnings in my life… I will refer to one circumstance which took place in 1848. I had been to Boston, and on my return I stopped at the house of one of the brethren in Cambridgeport. I drove my carriage into his yard, unhitched my horses, and tied them to the carriage. I then went to bed at the usual time, half past nine. The voice of the Spirit said to me, “Get up, and move your carriage.” I told my wife the Spirit had told me to get up and move my carriage. I went out and moved my carriage some distance, and tied my horses to an oak tree. I then went to bed again. I had hardly got into bed before the same Spirit said, “Get up, and move your horses from that oak tree.” I got up and moved my horses, and tied them to a small locust tree. I then went to bed and slept. In about thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the oak tree to which my horses had first been tied, and broke it off near the ground… Had I not listened to the revelations of the Spirit of God, I should have been killed.

President Wilford Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal (autobiography, 1881), recounting an evening in 1848

What are you going to do this week to better fulfill the call to pray always?

Imagine the scene. A father has carried his suffering son from town to town, from healer to healer, and finally to the disciples — who could not help. At last he kneels in front of Jesus and begs Him to do something — anything. Brother Holland, picturing that moment, says: “This man is saying, in effect, ‘Our whole family is pleading. Our struggle never ceases. We are exhausted. Our son falls into the water. He falls into the fire. He is continually in danger, and we are continually afraid. We don’t know where else to turn. Can you help us? We will be grateful for anything — a partial blessing, a glimmer of hope, some small lifting of the burden carried by this boy’s mother every day of her life.’” Then Jesus heals the boy — because a family flooded heaven on his behalf.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” General Conference, April 2013 — recasting the plea of the father in Mark 9, who brought his afflicted son to the Savior and cried, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

What are you flooding heaven for this week?

One night the priesthood leader had a dream about one of the young men whom he knew only from a picture. In the dream he saw the young man dressed in a white shirt and wearing a missionary name tag. With a companion seated at his side, the young man was teaching a family. The young man held the Book of Mormon in his hand, and he looked as if he were testifying of the truthfulness of the book. The priesthood leader then awoke from his dream. At an ensuing priesthood gathering, the leader approached the young man he had seen in his dream and asked to talk with him for a few minutes. The priesthood leader recounted the dream and asked the young man about its meaning. Choking with emotion, the young man simply replied, “It means God knows who I am.”

Elder David A. Bednar, “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” General Conference, April 2005

In preparing for that fateful day, I prayed over and over again, but still did not know what to do for his leaking tricuspid valve. Even as the operation commenced, my assistant asked, “What are you going to do for that?” I said, “I do not know.” We began the operation. After relieving the obstruction of the first valve, we exposed the second valve. We found it to be intact but so badly dilated that it could no longer function as it should. While examining this valve, a message was distinctly impressed upon my mind: Reduce the circumference of the ring. Then a picture came vividly to my mind, showing how stitches could be placed—to make a pleat here and a tuck there—to accomplish the desired objective. I still remember that mental image—complete with dotted lines where sutures should be placed.

President Russell M. Nelson, “Sweet Power of Prayer,” General Conference, April 2003 — recounting an answer that came mid-surgery

List the answers to prayer you can remember. For each one, note the circumstance, the form the answer took, and any common themes you notice across them.

List times you felt good about a road, started down it, and ran into a dead end. What did you learn? What themes can you carry with you?