Prayer

Positive and Negative Examples

"Behold, O God, they cry unto thee, and yet their hearts are swallowed up in their pride. Behold, O God, they cry unto thee with their mouths, while they are puffed up, even to greatness, with the vain things of the world." - Alma 31:27

Imagine trying to learn an abstract concept that you have never heard of before. It might be difficult to grasp the meaning if you only see examples of what the concept is. In order to properly learn something, you need to also see what it isn't. In Book of Mormon class this week, our professor illustrated this concept with an object lesson to teach us the made-up concept of "flop." He first held up a variety of objects at many orientations and declared they were all "flop." From these examples, it was practically impossible to interpret the meaning. Then he began to show us positive and negative examples to clarify. It became clear that "flop" was a condition where an object was placed completely in front of the whiteboard.

Obviously, "flop" is not a real thing, and is therefore unimportant. But the principle of learning behind this is clear. Many positive things in the Scriptures is reinforced with something negative to better teach concepts. For every Cain there is an Abel, for every Nephi their is a Laman, and so on. In Alma 31, this concept is applied to prayer.

Alma and his brethern travel to preach to the Zoramite people, and discover that they have many churches and places of worship. However, the people use these for prideful prayers where each week they praise God for having elected them to be better than everyone else in the land. Beyond this weekly self-praise, the people take no other thought for God. These people sacrifice nothing, and let their pride convince them that they are inherently chosen as the greatest people. This is clearly an example of negative prayer.

The chapter contrasts this as Alma prays humbly in verse 26-36, pleading with God to help this people see their pride and turn back to Christ. This positive example counterbalances the prideful prayers of the Zoramites.

Prayer is not something to puff yourself up and boast. God knows exactly who you are. He understands all of your strengths and weaknesses. True prayer involves turning to Him in humility to become more like Him. If we pray as Alma, humbly and thinking of more than ourselves, we can receive more blessings from our Heavenly Father. I know He loves us, and is willing to stretch His arm to us at any time. All we have to do is ask.