Pray Yourself out of Darkness

Something that stood out to me during my personal study in the scriptures this week was 1 Nephi 8: 8-9. It says, “And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. 9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.”

One of the things that is a part of my scripture study goal is underline in my scriptures whenever it mentions someone from the Godhead. For example, God, Jesus, Lord, Father, Spirit, Holy Ghost, etc.  I underlined “Lord” twice and noticed that even before Nephi sees the vision of the great and spacious building he was praying.  I can imagine that Nephi was frightened for walking in the darkness for so long and the only thing he could do was pray. Only after his prayer was he able to see the great vision of the tree of life.  I wonder if he had prayed earlier he wouldn’t have been lost in darkness for such a long period?

I know that the principle of prayers is real and that in the times we least want to pray that is when we must pray. Just like Nephi came out of the darkness we too can come out of the darkness. We come out just by having a simple conversation with our loving Heavenly Father.