President Heber J. Grant on the benefits of faithful prayer

President Heber J. Grant (1856-1945) was ordained an apostle in 1882 when he was 25 years old.  He served as president of the Church from 1918 until his death in 1945 at age 88.  His tenure as president lasted over 26 years; only Brigham Young had a longer term (over 29 years).

"The minute a man stops supplicating God for his spirit and directions just so soon he starts out to become a stranger to him and his works. When men stop praying for God’s spirit, they place confidence in their own unaided reason, and they gradually lose the spirit of God, just the same as near and dear friends, by never writing to or visiting with each other, will become strangers. We should all pray that God may never leave us alone for a moment without his spirit to aid and assist us in withstanding sin and temptation."

- Heber J. Grant, Conference Report, Oct. 1944, p. 9; see Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant, p. 174

Oh, how we need to maintain our connection to our Father in Heaven! In our busy temporal world, it's so easy to lose contact with our friends when we don't make efforts to maintain communication—especially if distance or circumstances separate us. I have found that to be the case, in moving to a new neighborhood; quickly the associations of the past fade away unless there is significant effort to maintain them. Just so, we must make constant efforts to maintain our communication with, and connection to God.

So we must regularly "[supplicate] God for his spirit and directions" and "pray that God may never leave us alone for a moment without his spirit" to help with the challenges of our lives.

(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2019)