Prayer - Romans 8:19-27

While we go through the battle of the natural man vs. the spiritual man, there is one part that I didn’t cover yesterday that I thought was important to discuss. Verse 13 says, “for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” The concept of natural man vs. spiritual man is interesting because we know that Heavenly Father has a body and we know that we wanted a body too and we know that we cannot reach a fullness of joy without a body. This information would lead us to believe that our bodies are good and our physical experiences match that in importance with our spiritual experiences.

But then we are taught that we are to overcome our natural urges, to “put off the natural man,” and learn self-mastery. So it seems like there are these two conflicting perspectives, one that says “your body is an amazing gift,” and the other that says, “Don’t do what your body tells you it wants to do.” I guess it comes down to the statement, “we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, not a physical being having a spiritual experience.”
The IM says, “some groups of Christianity and other religious traditions have believed that the only way to overcome desires of the flesh is to abstain completely from physical pleasures. However, many physical pleasures are not sinful, but are good. Paul taught that the companionship of the Holy Spirit can make it possible for us to use our bodies according to God’s purposes for His children… Elder Parley P. Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles similarly taught: ‘the gift of the Holy Ghost… purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use.’”
This is a crucial understanding when it comes to reconcile the two, seemingly contradictory, perspectives concerning our bodies. The body is meant to be enjoyed and to experience all manner of joy and pleasure and physical things that our spirits can’t experience. We are given those urges and feel those sensations because they are good, but experiencing them has to be contained within the bounds set by God. I had a patient tell me once that he tells his sons, “sex is like fire. In the fireplace, it’s amazing and beautiful and makes you feel good. But outside of the fireplace, it will burn your life down.” I feel like this is a great analogy for the good sensations that are permitted within certain bounds.
Paul is sympathetic to our plight as humans overcoming ourselves, and he recognizes that the natural man “was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.” To me this is a reference to the fallen world that we were born into and must deal with because of Adam. It’s not our fault that we are born into a body that feels natural urges, and really, considering that, it doesn’t seem logical to say that it’s our responsibility to overcome the terrible situation that we were born into. But I think that is where the atonement comes in, we are under no obligation to repent or overcome the natural man, but doing so it where happiness is, so the opportunity was provided to us, as a gift.
Living in a fallen world in a mortal body is difficult and overcoming it can be painful, but those of us “which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,” are anxiously waiting for the redemption of our body.” The word “firstfruits” is cross-referenced with Galatians 5:22 which says, “but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” When we are faithful, we are given these gifts of the Spirit to help us overcome not only our temptations, but also our yearning and frustration over the condition of our lives and bodies in this mortality.
It is through these “firstfruits” that the “Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” We can receive comfort, peace, guidance, and strength to overcome, but there’s more than that, “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” A friend once talked to me about the concept of having the Spirit guide our prayers, and it made no sense to me because prayer is where you are supposed to talk to God unrestrained. I really struggled with this concept because a big part of prayer for me is to be able to say anything and everything, to be able to keep it real, and if I “went by the Spirit” then I wouldn’t be able to say what I really wanted to say.
I tried to do it a couple of times and it went really well, but I still struggle with the concept of prayer in general, I think because for me, I feel like I talk to God all day long, so I don’t really have anything left to say at the end of the day. But again, this is probably just a terrible excuse. I have heard a couple of really powerful prayers before, by a 16 year old boy no less, and it was an incredible experience, truly it rocked my world. But prayer is hard for me. Another reason why I struggle is because I feel like God already knows what I want and need, and I just feel like I spent so many years praying and praying for relief and didn’t feel like it ever came, so I figured, what’s the point.
But did relief come? Were my prayers answered and I didn’t see it because it wasn’t what I was looking for? That’s the question of the day I guess. This is something that I’m going to have to think about, were my prayers answered? And if so, then what does that mean for me praying now? I feel like I’m pestering God when I keep asking him for stuff, and logically I know that he has infinite patience and love and wants us to talk to him about stuff like that, but emotionally, it’s a tough sell for me. And I don’t want to have to pray for other people because for one, it is exhausting and for two, I don’t want any of my blessings to be contingent on the action or inaction of someone else, so I don’t want their blessings contingent on me at all either.
Basically, I really struggle with a lot of the concepts of prayer, and I know that it is to my detriment. I’m going to have to study this more, and ironically, pray about it. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching that the Holy Ghost, ‘gives direction to the faithful, causing them to know and speak the mind and will of the Lord. Perfect prayers are always inspired by the Spirit, and they are always answered, because the Spirit knows beforehand, ‘what ye should pray for.’”
What does praying the will of the Lord mean? Well, I mean, we are supposed to pray for the will of the Lord to be done, and if the Spirit tells us the words to use, then we would be praying the will of the Lord, which would mean that it would be at this point that the Lord reveals his will to us. Interesting. Maybe it would be like receiving our own priesthood blessing, where we would understand and speak the words that are meant just for us. We would be receiving our own personal revelation for what God wants us to do and know. I’m going to have to think about this more.