What Did Ellen White Pray About?

Ellen White opened her heart to God in prayer, confiding in Him as we do in our best friends. She was eager to praise Jesus in her prayers and she wasn’t embarrassed to express her deep love for Him. Once, she stopped right in the middle of her sermon, and looking toward heaven, said “Oh Jesus, how I love You!” One person later recalled that heaven seemed really close the day Ellen White stopped her sermon to tell Jesus she loved Him.

Many of Ellen White’s prayers have been printed in books. She believed that Jesus could help her when she faced a hard decision, and she often asked Him for wisdom and guidance. Once she said in prayer, “I cannot make any decision until I know Your will.”

Ellen White began praying for her close friends when she was very young, and continued praying for her friends’ salvation all through her long life. She had the joy of seeing many of her friends who didn’t seem to care about following Jesus, become Christians. She often prayed that Jesus would help her speak and write words that would help someone accept the Lord and begin living for Him.

One morning in 1849 Ellen White went to visit her mother in Gorham, Maine. She found her mom suffering terribly from an abscessed and swollen foot, a result of stepping on a rusty nail. The neighbors suggested many remedies but nothing helped. Ellen White felt impressed to pray that God would spare her mother’s life and heal her foot. Let’s hear Ellen herself describe what happened next:

“With a deep sense of my unworthiness, I knelt at my mother’s feet and [asked] the Lord to touch her with His healing power. We all believed that the Lord [hears] prayer. With the Spirit of the Lord resting upon me, I bid her in the name of the Lord rise up and walk. His power was in the
room. . .” *

Ellen’s mom stood up, walked around the room, and announced that the pain was gone! Her abscess was completely healed, and shouts of praise to God rose to Jesus. Ellen’s mother had no more trouble with her foot.

Sometimes, especially after Ellen White’s husband died, she felt very lonely, and that no one really understood her and the responsibilities she carried. During one of those “lonely times,” she wrote, “I have my Friend in Jesus, and He can help me and He alone.” **

Ellen White loved to talk through prayer to her best Friend, Jesus!

“Children and youth may come to Jesus with their burdens and perplexities, and know that He will respect their appeals to Him, and give them the very things they need. Be earnest; be resolute. Present the promise of God, and then believe without a doubt. Do not wait to feel special emotions before you think the Lord answers. Do not mark out some particular way that the Lord must work for you before you believe you receive the things you ask of Him. . .Trust His word, and leave the whole matter in the hands of the Lord, with full faith that your prayer will be honored, and the answer will come at the very time and in the very way your heavenly Father sees is for your good; and then live out your prayers.

—Messages to Young People, p.123.