Pray one by one

Pray one by one
There is a chapter is the Book of Mormon that has always touched me. 3 Nephi 17. Christ prays for the Nephite children. We can learn so much about Christ's character from this chapter and we can learn how we are to emulate Him. One verse that struck me while reading it this time around was verse 24.
"And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes toward heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them."
Immediately after Christ prays and weeps for them one by one, the heavens open and they are encircled by angels that minister unto them. First of all, that imagery is beautiful! Second, the principle we can learn from this is that prayer is powerful! It brings greater blessings than we realize. I believe that there is great power that comes from praying for others by name.

On my mission, I remember feeling great love for an investigator as my companion and I prayed for him/her by name. Whenever I've heard my mission president, a family member, or a companion pray for me by name, I felt a stronger love from Heavenly Father. We essentially feel the Lord's angels encircling us. There are many examples of people praying for others in the scriptures, like Enos. There is so much love felt as we read these verses: "wherefore, I did pour out my whole soul unto God for them." After he follows through with his heartfelt prayer, his "faith began to be unshaken in the Lord". And then the Lord tells him, "I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith."
Too often, we think to only pray for ourselves and our needs. I know that as we pray specifically for others in our lives, we will feel a greater abundance of God's love because we are striving to become more like Christ in this manner. We, as Enos, will strengthen our faith and have our prayers be answered! Angels are among us and God will bless us more abundantly with their presence as we pray for others by name!