It is no coincidence that we were recently inspired to muse on “prayer by action” (action as a form of prayer for revelation) in advance of my Bishop’s 3rd-hour, 5th-Sunday message today.

Natural Prayer

Your Prayers don’t Get Answered until You Need Them Answered

Prayer as Two-Way Conversation

We spent most of the 5th hour with all the adults and youth present hashing out some plans. Then the Bishop ended the meeting with a talk from Elder Oaks on revelation. In His Own Time, in His Own Way. Here is the passage my Bishop quoted:

Most revelation to the children of God comes when they are on the move, not when they are sitting back in their habitations waiting for the Lord to tell them the first step to take.

For example, it is significant to note that the revelation known as “the Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel” (D&C 136:1) was not given in Nauvoo as the Quorum of the Twelve planned the exodus from Nauvoo in those sorrowful days following the Martyrdom of the Prophet in 1844; nor was it given on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It was given at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, after the Saints had spent a punishing year moving from Nauvoo westward across Iowa to temporary camps on the Missouri River. The revelation to guide the movement of the Saints across the plains was given on January 14, 1847, when the Saints had already gone about a third of the way to the valleys of the mountains.

We will get promptings of the Spirit when we have done everything we can, when we are out in the sun working rather than sitting back in the shade praying for direction on the first step to take. Revelation comes when the children of God are on the move.

My heart burned.

(Read the whole thing. It’s a practical primer on revelation, by an experienced practitioner).

Busyness can be a way of blocking the Lord. It can. Too much busyness can also deaden you. But I know of myself that the principle Elder Oaks taught is true. I love those glorious Sundays when I wake up thinking what I need to do at Church, and an idea or two comes, I jot them down and start preparing for them, and then the ideas keep coming and coming and I spend the morning doing good constantly interrupted by jotting down more ideas and notes. But then also some quiet moments in the services and the sacrament, and happy relaxation at the family dinner.

The best is busyness mixed with contemplation.