"Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing--yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.
Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?
Or canst thou run about longer as a blind guide?
Or canst thou be humble and meek, and conduct thyself wisely before me? Yea, come unto me thy Savior. Amen."
Doctrine and Covenants 19:38-41
This scripture has a lot of stuff packed in there. Starts out with a common theme... pray always. Prayer is always a good idea. God is pretty dang wise, and tapping into that storehouse of knowledge ... and power... just adds to *our* wisdom, and power. :) Plus, he loves us and it's always nice to talk to people that love you. :)
So, then it goes on and it tells us that if we pray we'll get greater treasure than we could ever find upon the earth... some of those we just talked about... blessings of knowledge and wisdom and power for good .... *so* cool...
Then, can we read this without rejoicing? :) This reminds me of the book "Till We Have Faces" by C. S. Lewis (my absolute favorite)... one of the scenes has the main character going on a very depressing errand, and on the way she rides through beautiful fields and is overwhelmed by the glory of it... and thinks that she hears a voice saying to her "why should your heart not dance?" but she is determined to be sad. ... and so, yes, we *can* read this, and other amazingly cool things without rejoicing and lifting up our hearts for gladness... but *why?* Our hearts *should* dance... our souls should fly.
If we pray, we don't have to run around any longer leading ourselves blindly... God can show us the way. And he will never lead us astray. Instead of being blind, and sad... we can be happy, and have God, who can see, as our guide. :)
And here's how... pray, as in the first verse... and be humble and meek. I think we have to be humble to accept God's wisdom, and recognize that he knows more than us. :) And then the Lord says, come unto me... sometimes we go through life wondering what the point is, what we are working for... and this is it. God is the goal. To be with him, to be like him, to know and feel and see all that he is and does, to become everything that he is.
And behold, can *we* read and know and comprehend all that God has in store for us, and how he leads us and helps us every day, and how he gives us hope... without rejoicing and lifting up our hearts for gladness? Sure, it's possible... but why try?
