God’s Power: Alcoholics Anonymous #11
Step 11
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.
I know through practical experience that prayer and meditation changes my life in numerous ways for the better. While I’m in the “habit” of praying every morning and night, I don’t always take the time to really meditate and ponder about the issues that are on my mind. When I do, peace is restored in my life, and my faith increases dramatically. What does meditation and pondering require? Just time—and a quiet place where you can be alone.
I find it helpful to read a few verses of scripture before I begin my pondering. The early morning hours are best for me; others have found this to be true also (please see excerpt at the end of this post). I also find it helpful to write the questions I’m concerned about in my special “Early Morning Journal” and then write down the answers that come into my mind through the Spirit as I pray. What I have learned is that meditation, pondering, and prayer take less time than lying awake all night worrying over a myriad of problems. I don’t believe God wants us to feel alone and helpless. He wants us to let Him into our lives.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
—Revelation 3:20
We must open the door.
Contact with God
Prayer and meditation
Bring a spiritual rebirth
As I come in conscious contact
With the God of heaven and earth.
Through prayer I come to know Him
He shows His will for me;
He gives me power to carry it out,
He helps me to be free.
Meaningful meditation
Will consistently be mine
As I seek this source of Power
That brings His light divine.
So I must make the time
For conscious contact every day,
For I know I’ll feel His presence
When I meditate and pray.
I like this quote by Gordon B. Hinckley, “Never assume that you can make it alone. You need the help of the Lord. Never hesitate to get on your knees in some private place and speak with Him.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Stay on the High Road," Ensign, May 2004, 114) No, we can’t make it alone. We need the Lord’s help.
Pondering Most Effective in Early Mornings
by Boyd K. Packer
I have learned that the best time to wrestle with major problems is early in the morning. Your mind is then fresh and alert. The blackboard of your mind has been erased by a good night’s rest. The accumulated distractions of the day are not in your way. Your body has been rested also. That’s the time to think something through very carefully and to receive personal revelation. I’ve heard President Harold B. Lee begin many a statement about matters involving revelation with an expression something like this: “In the early hours of the morning, while I was pondering upon that subject,” and so on. He made it a practice to work on the problems that required revelation in the fresh, alert hours of the early morning. The Lord knew something when He directed in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.” (D&C 88:124.)
I counsel our children to do their critical studying in the early hours of the morning when they’re fresh and alert, rather than to fight physical weariness and mental exhaustion at night. I’ve learned that the dictum, “Early to bed, early to rise” is powerful. When under pressure—for instance, when I was preparing this talk—you wouldn’t find me burning the midnight oil. Much rather I’d be early to bed and getting up in the wee hours of the morning, when I could be close to Him who guides this work. (“Self-Reliance,” Ensign, Aug. 1975, p. 89)
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
—Proverbs 4:26