Hello, Is the President Available?

Calling the White House

President Obama says he is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.  So I called the White House to visit with him about some of my personal concerns.

A receptionist answered the phone, “White House.” I asked if I could talk to the President and that I had some concerns.  She transferred me to another line.  I received a tape recording “President’s Comment Line” saying, “We are closed.”

When I call upon God in prayer, he is not that way. The call always goes through. No foreign voice. No voice recording. No support staff is going to answer.

We are His children.  He’s not out of the office when we call.  He’s not disinterested in our concerns.  We’re not boring him.  We can never talk too long.  He will hear us out.

Calling Upon God

Prayer is our means of calling Heavenly Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Only a fool would not take advantage of such a resource.

Our Heavenly Father has a voice to speak, ears to hear, eyes to see, and angels to send.  There really is an almighty God with whom we can have a personal relationship.  I can talk to Him and He can talk to me.  David O. McKay said “You cannot imagine an effective prayer without visualizing and feeling a personal God.” (Treasures of Life, Deseret Book, 1963, p. 308.)

Relationship, Relationship, Relationship

Therapy research has now identified the “therapeutic relationship”  or  sometimes referred to as “therapeutic alliance” as being more powerful than any specific psychological technique!  That is, the therapist’s relationship skills, rather than techniques or theoretical orientations, are the more important aspects of effectively changing another’s life.

As mental health professionals, we are trained that the alliance with the patient is most effective when the therapist exhibits some of the following traits: warmth, friendliness, genuineness, empathy, active listening skills, and concern.

If this is true on earth, it is true in heaven.

Who better than God to have perfect relationship skills?

Having a relationship with God, changes lives.

We are eternal beings.  We came from God.  We will return to God.

When God is believed in as our Eternal Father, we can to a degree understand our relationship to him—that he is the Father of our spirits, a loving parent who is interested in his children individually and whom they can love with all their hearts, might, mind, and strength.  Such a belief is essential to true prayer because intelligent beings will not pray fervently to a God they do not know.  Such praying will be done only by people who believe their prayers can be heard and answered by an understanding, sympathetic parent. (“Pray Always” An address delivered at general conference October 7, 1944 by Marion G. Romney.)

God Smiles When He Sees You

When God hears us calling Him, he rejoices.  Even if we’ve done wrong.  Like the prodigal son coming home.  The father wanted to see his son and celebrated his return.  “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15: 20).  That’s the picture we need to have of God when we visualize Him in prayer.

As we make a habit of approaching God in prayer, we will come to know Him and draw ever nearer to Him.

If you don’t feel the power of His relationship – the therapeutic alliance, keep calling back, keep asking for God.  Eventually, a personal relationship will come.   Perhaps the most powerful life changing experience any of us could have would be, to have a relationship with God.

Gospel Principle

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,… “ (John 17:3.)

Additional Information

“The Only True God & Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent” by Jeffrey R. Holland.

Robert D. Hales, “Seeking to Know God, Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ,” Ensign, Nov. 2009.