YA Weekly
6 Ways to Add Power to Your Prayers
September 2024

Life Skills

6 Ways to Add Power to Your Prayers

By Gabrielle Shiozawa

Church Magazines

Learning more about prayer can improve your communication with God and help you see His guidance in your life.

a figure clasping their hands

I’ve grappled with the idea of prayer for most of my life. Growing up, prayer was often correlated with stories of lost puppies being found and dead car batteries starting through the power of prayer, and that seemed to be all there was to it! For a long time, I saw God as a kind of “cosmic vending machine.”1

But prayer doesn’t feel as powerful when you’re a young adult trying to navigate life. You start realizing that you don’t always understand God’s will, wondering why the answer is sometimes no even when you’ve pleaded for a yes or considering why you pray at all if the heavens seem silent.

But as I’ve studied prayer, I’ve come to understand a few principles that have helped my communication with God become more meaningful. Here are six suggestions that may help you improve your prayers:

  1. Be intentional. Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy suggests scheduling time every day to pray and ponder, reflecting on our relationship to God, and developing a humble heart.2 It’s easy to get into a pattern of saying repetitive phrases in your prayers and not really pondering what you are going to say. There are many days when my prayers aren’t thoughtful. But when I take the time to ponder and listen for responses or guidance from the Holy Ghost, I have a much better experience communicating with Heavenly Father. Our prayers become more meaningful when we take our time, focus on being sincere and thoughtful, and reflect on our words.

  2. Pray vocally. God told Joseph Smith, “I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:28). Praying aloud can help you stay focused. It can also feel more personal. Some of my best prayers have happened when I poured out my heart out loud in the privacy of my car. I once prayed aloud on a long drive during a time in my life when I was struggling to feel the Spirit. As I told God about my desire to feel close to Him, I felt the Spirit strongly come over me, reassuring me of God’s awareness of me.

  3. Align your will with God’s. Elder David A. Bednar once asked his friend John, who was a cancer patient at the time, “‘Do you have the faith not to be healed?’”3 John told him that as he gained faith, his prayers changed. Instead of saying, “‘Please make me whole,”’ he began saying, “Please give me the faith to accept whatever outcome Thou hast planned for me.”4 He realized that having faith meant knowing God could help him heal but also knowing that it was up to Him to decide. It can be painful when your prayers aren’t answered the way you expect, but one thing I’ve learned is that prayers have to be aligned with godly desires and His timing. I’ve started rephrasing the way I pray, asking things like, “Heavenly Father, please help me know if this person is good for me to date! But if not, please help me be OK with letting them go.” Focusing on God’s will in your prayers shows that you trust Him and want to learn from Him.

  4. Turn to the scriptures. Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “When we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures.”5 Recently I prayed about a hardship I felt like I didn’t have the resources to handle. Then I opened the scriptures and got this reminder: “The Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7). I felt comforted as I realized Heavenly Father will always guide me and help me overcome my challenges as I study the scriptures.

  5. Be prepared to receive revelation. Alma told his son Helaman, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good” (see Alma 37:37). When you pray, you can focus on working with God to find an answer, not just asking Him to do something for you. Once I asked God to take away a weakness I had. As I prayed, I felt prompted to change the wording of what I was asking to instead express gratitude for the opportunity I had to work through that weakness! That prompting helped me shift my mindset and realize steps I could take to improve myself. Praying is a way to open your heart to the truths of the Spirit, allowing you to better understand how you can serve others and find answers to your questions.

  6. Have faith in God, not outcomes. The first principle of the gospel is “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Articles of Faith 1:4; emphasis added). Faith isn’t about believing in a certain outcome; it’s about trusting Him! The more we trust God’s plan and understand that He has an omniscient view of our lives, the better our prayers—and our relationship with Him—become.

My prayers aren’t always answered the way I think they “should” be, and sometimes that hurts. But the more I come to understand about prayer, the more I see how much God loves me and wants to help me learn. I’m not perfect at praying, but I do know that with His help and our willingness, we can deepen our faith and truly invite the power of prayer into our lives.