"What do Americans pray for? Themselves and maybe a sports team"
That headline caught my interest and I continued to read.
"When Americans aren't busy praying for themselves or their own needs--and most of them are--many are seeking divine intervention on behalf of a favorite sports team or the golden ticket in the lottery, according to a new survey."
Another finding in the survey--48% of Americans pray every day
(Deseret News, Sarah Pulliam Bailey, October 4, 2014)
Is that good news or bad news that 48% of Americans pray every day? My initial reaction is good--I like to think that half of America is praying daily, although of course, I wish the number of people who prayed was higher.
I read a strong quote this week on prayer from the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith:
I wonder if we ever stop to think why the Lord has asked us to pray.
Did he ask us to pray because he wants us to bow down and worship him?
Is that the main reason? I don't think it is. He is our Heavenly Father,
and we have been commanded to worship him and pray to him in the name of his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. But the Lord can get along without our prayers. His work will go on just the same, whether we pray or whether we do not...Prayer is something that we need, not that the Lord needs. He knows
just how to conduct his affairs and how to take care of them without any help from us. Our prayers are not for the purpose of telling him how to run his business. If we have any such idea as that, then of course we have the wrong idea. Our prayers are uttered more for our sakes, to build us up and give us strength and courage, and to increase our faith in him.
And one more from President Smith:
How careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life,
a thankful attitude. I believe that one of the greatest sins of which the inhabitants of the earth are guilty today is the sin or ingratitude, the want
(or lack) of acknowledgment, on their part, of the Lord and his right to govern and control. In our prayers we should pour out our souls in thanksgiving, acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things and thank him for all things
both temporal and spiritual.
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