Ether 1:34

And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words.

In this and the next five verses, the brother of Jared "cries unto the Lord" for compassion and help. The difference between just praying, which most of us do on a regular basis, and crying, which yields miraculous results, is in the intent and intensity of the experience. When we are desperate, when we have exhausted our mortal means and cannot take another step, we cry unto God.

Most days, however, we are not desperate, or at least we do not recognize how desperate we should be. Most of the time we think we have life under control. We have our routines, we work, we solve little problems, and we take our blessings for granted. Only when we are faced with a crisis -- a dying parent, a sick spouse, a rebellious child, loss of a job, or some other disaster -- do we get serious enough about seeking divine help that we finally cry unto the Lord.

I'm sure our Father understands that mortals cannot live 24x7 in utter crisis mode. Nevertheless, if we truly understood the ultimately desperate situation of mortality, we would cry every day unto God. We teeter on the brink of spiritual death every day. We need daily forgiveness in the worst way. We need grace at every step. We need the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost -- constantly.

We cannot manufacture faith or charity or any other spiritual gift. We are totally dependent on Christ for justification, sanctification, redemption and salvation. To think any other way is to be blind to reality. Yet we fumble our way through most days in total denial of our desperation.

But God is patient and kind, and he lets us have our delusion of self-sufficiency. Only occasionally does he drop a hint that we are living really on thin ice. We face an unexpected setback or a crisis and, if we are wise, we cry unto him, and in that moment we finally get out of his way so he can go to work in our lives.