For This We Pray – Sunday, May 13, 1945
It is good that a nation this day should be called to prayer and thanksgiving. We have much yet to ask, and exceedingly much to be grateful for. Victory is ours in part, and, God being willing, there will come a day—not too far distant, we hope—when it will be ours more completely. Among those things for which we pray this day is humility. It is difficult for some to be humble even in defeat. It is also difficult to be humble in victory. We pray that we may be so.
To pray does not mean the same thing to all men. There are those to whom it is but a formality—an established custom, an accepted pattern—for men to speak and to bear on set occasions. There are those to whom prayer is but a last desperate gesture. There are those to whom prayer is believed to be but the self-heard expression of hopes and wishes that we think to ourselves. But prayers which do not go beyond these limitations fall short of the full meaning of prayer. That prayer which offers nothing more than a psychological satisfaction is not enough for the mother who prays for a son on a distant battlefront; not enough for one who watches at the bedside of a stricken child; not enough for statesmen struggling with grievous world problems; not enough when, beyond all human help, we still need help.
The prayers which find full meaning in our lives are in truth conversations between man and his Maker—the exchange of confidences between a child and his eternal Father. And of this may we ever be mindful, this day—and always: That there is a God in heaven in whose image men were created, who is the Maker of heaven and earth, who is our eternal Father, who is mindful of us all, and who hears and answers the prayers of His children. Of this an unnumbered host in our own generation testify from their daily experience; and of this have many on the battlefronts of the world borne witness who have been sustained in their time of need when they were pushed beyond all human resources—sustained as though a voice had spoken, as though a hand had lifted their burdens.
It is well that this day should be a day of prayer, a day of thanksgiving for countless blessings, a day on which to pray for the peace of the world, for the comfort of those who mourn, for restoration of the wounded, in mind, in body, and in spirit—for completeness of victory, for hearts free from bitterness, for success to every righteous cause. For these things we pray, not doubting.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, May 13, 1945. Copyright 1945.
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May 13, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,821