--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Louis L. Allen collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 18 number: 6 published: 1915-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Louis L. Allen, "Prayer and Worship," *Improvement Era* 18, no. 6 (April 1915): 480.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1806unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1806unse start_page: 480 end_page: 480 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1806unse publication_year: 1915 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Prayer and Worship Prayer and Worship BY LOUIS L. ALLEN t is our duty and privilege to know the true and living God, ] and that he is a "rewarder of them that diligently seek him." "If men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves," said the Prophet Joseph Smith. "It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know that we can converse with him as one man converses with another." Before we can really, truly and sincerely worship, we must have some conception or idea of the object to whom we present our prayers. We may not be able to comprehend God in his might and power, in his glory and intelligence but we may know ; — him as he would that we should know him as King, Ruler and Creator. The Savior has given us the key whereby we may know more of God's and purposes will "Our Father, which art in : heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." He has given unto all his sons and daughters the right to call him Father, and his greatest desire is that we should know him, love him, and keep his command- ments, thereby reaping the blessings in store for the righteous, thus making his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is the great way to bringing mankind in harmony with God's will. If all would engage more frequently in prayer, hu- manity would be raised to a higher level. We must remember that prayer consists not in words only. The most acceptable prayers are not those that are couched in choicest language, nor those that meet the requirements of rhetoric. But the prayer that counts is uttered with the seal of the heart's desire. When we have prayed, we must remember to wait also. The more patient and insistent we are in prayer, so much more will God grant unto us when he sees fit to bestow the "blessing. We must know and remember that God always hears and grants our petitions, though he often postpones the anwser until his infinite wisdom determines the fittest time. In short, the burden of the word of God is He who prays earnestly for blessings or instruc- :