The November 2024 Come, Follow Me Ministering Printable ties together Sister Tracy Y. Browning’s October 2024 General Conference talk, “Seeking Answers to Spiritual Questions,” with “I can receive revelation for my life” in the November “Come, Follow Me” message from Ether 1-5.
Download November 2024 Ministering Printable (4×6)
You can print these printables as 4×6 photo prints. My local drugstore prints them for just pennies. They are also a higher resolution if you want to enlarge them.
November 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering Message
Ether 1-5 – Building Covenant Relationships Through Prayer
If Heavenly Father already knows what we need, why do we need to pray?
Before a baby is born, almost every need is taken care of right away. They are constantly fed and held, they never have dirty diapers, and they are never too hot or too cold. However, once babies are born, they have to learn how to communicate their needs to their parents. It is clumsy at first. When a baby cries, it can mean anything. But over time, babies build a relationship with their parents. An understanding of facial expressions, body language, and words develops.
Through trial and error, babies figure out how to communicate their needs. They also come to better understand their needs; including ways to meet their own needs. A parent might change a dirty diaper because they see it needs to be changed. But eventually, that child will learn to tell their parent that they need to use the bathroom. It is this relationship of need, service, and trust that forms a sacred bond between parent and child.
Developing a a Divine Partnership
Our Heavenly Father knows our needs beyond any earthly parent. But for a true relationship to form, we need to learn how to communicate with Him. We also need to learn our part in filling our needs. And we can’t do that if we are stuck in the womb phase with all our needs met right away. Like an infant, we first learn that there is someone listening and responding. Then our simple prayers become more and more of a partnership. We learn the language of the spirit and how to hear our Heavenly Father when He speaks to us.
How the Lord communicates to us can be surprisingly personal. People feel the spirit and receive promptings in very different ways. Some people might feel a burning in the bosom, but others might feel a gentle warmth. Some might feel the urge to serve others. Others might feel peace. As we learn to communicate with our Heavenly Father, we are actually building an intensely personal and intimate relationship. It is wonderful that the Lord sends messages that He designs just for you. For me personally, it makes me feel very loved and seen.
The Power of Prayer
I am humbled when I consider that Heavenly Father gave me the same tool to communicate with Him that Christ used during his earthly ministry. Christ constantly made time and space in His life to pray. It was central to much of His ministering and His relationship with the Father. Unfortunately, we are so used to prayer that we take it for granted.
Heavenly Father wants us to learn to work with Him, and if we aren’t praying, we aren’t working with Him. If we expect Him to automatically give us what we need or answer all our questions, then how do we develop a relationship with Him?
In her talk “Seeking Answers to Spiritual Questions,” Sister Tracy Y. Browning reminds us that asking questions is a part of the mortal experience. She says, “At times, not readily having complete answers can bring us to the edge of our understanding, and those limitations can feel frustrating or overwhelming.” But she explains that having questions is a necessary part of growth. While seeking understanding through our own perceptions and knowledge can be helpful, spiritual knowledge requires the guidance of the Holy Ghost. God invites us to seek truth through scripture, modern prophets, prayer, and temple worship, with the promise that those who seek shall find. Growth often comes slowly, “line upon line,” as we wait on the Lord and strengthen our covenant relationship with Him.
How Experiences Shape Our Prayers
In Ether, the Brother of Jared didn’t start out by seeing the Lord. His miraculous experience was years in the making. It grew from reaching out over and over again to the Lord, and then acting on His directions. But even the Brother of Jared made mistakes and was chastised. However, instead of giving up, he used those experiences as opportunities to become better. Just as the Lord prepared the Brother of Jared, He meets you where you are in prayer, always guiding you toward a deeper closeness with Him.
As the Brother of Jared led his people through the wilderness, the Lord directed them as they used barges to cross the many bodies of water. Their practice with building and using these barges helped prepare them for the much longer voyage to the promised land. Through their experiences, they also learned what was still needed. That is how the Brother of Jared knew firsthand that they needed a way to breathe and a way to get light.
Waiting Upon the Lord
If the Lord asked me to travel across an unfamiliar sea in a barge that I knew was dark and suffocating, I would be tempted to grumble and whine. I would assume that the Lord’s plan wouldn’t work because I was already well familiar with the shortcomings of the barges.
But the Brother of Jared uses his knowledge very differently. Instead he uses his experience to learn what he needs to pray for next. You see a personal and collaborative relationship form between him and the Lord as they work together to solve the problem. Sometimes the Lord gives direct instruction and sometimes He turns to the Brother of Jared to come up with an answer. The Brother of Jared is willing to act in faith and put in the work, even before he knows how it will all turn out. He doesn’t need to see the whole plan before acting on the Lord’s instructions. He also doesn’t second guess the Lord’s instructions.
The Lord is always preparing us to ask the next right question. We can either use our experience to think we know better, or we can use it to prepare for the next step.
Sister Browning shares, “We may be required to ‘wait upon the Lord’ in the space between our current line of understanding and the next yet to be delivered. This sacred space can be a place where our greatest spiritual conditioning can occur—the site where we can ‘bear with patience’ our earnest seeking and renew our strength to continue to keep the sacred promises we have made to God through covenant.”
November 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering Handout
I found more cute pumpkins! These were from Target and they were too cute not to share. Thanksgiving is actually one of my favorite holidays and a great reason to keep out all your pumpkins! Or you can curb your fall cravings with pumpkin-spiced almonds!
Did you like this November 2024 Come Follow Me Ministering message? Find more Relief Society Ministering Printables for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
These ministering printables are a great way to help families incorporate the “Come, Follow Me” lessons into their own study. They are also perfect for Young Women’s, Relief Society, Sunday School, or Family Home Evening. I hope that these ministering printables will be a simple way to reach out to those we minister to.
