"And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son."
Alma 33:11
The thing that strikes me about this verse today is the word "sincerity." It's a good measure perhaps of the openness and honesty and purity that needs to exist in our communication with the Lord. I mean, we decieve even ourselves sometimes in this life, but between ourselves and God, there are not even any shadows. All is seen and clear, and any deception that exists is within ourselves, saying things that we don't really mean or just going through the motions.
I think there are some things that can help us with this:
--Being fully present while we're talking with God--not rushing through so we can get to something else, or distracted and thinking about something else while we are concentrating on God. It's kind of like the Sabbath Day. Prayer time belongs to God, and we need to set that time aside just for him.
--Not overstating anything. Sometimes we don't really know what we think until we express it, so let's go before the Lord with the attitude of talking things out with him and telling him what we think and feel rather than jumping to a conclusion we haven't thought out yet. Give him a chance to influence the conversation.
--If we do find ourselves wandering off on a tangent or mumbling something we aren't really invested in, let's not just walk away. Let's stop, apologize, and try again. God understands that is going to happen sometimes, but ackowledging and correcting the problem is going to help us improve our prayers and build a better relationship with God.
Today, let's work on our sincerity with the Lord. Let's be honest with ourselves and with him, and move forward together from that core of honest truth and reality.
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