Guidance and Resistance

In Dungeons and Dragons, each spell has a numeric level. There are weak, 1st level spells, like Comprehend Languages and Detect Magic, and there are powerful, 9th level spells, like Miracle and Time Stop, and everything in between. Each spellcaster can only cast a certain number of spells of each level per day, and when you've used up your day's allotment of spells, you can't cast any more spells for the rest of the day. For example, a 1st level Cleric can cast only two 1st level spells per day, while a 5th level Cleric can cast four 1st level spells, three 2nd level spells, and two 3rd level spells per day. The higher level a spellcaster is and the lower level a spell is, the more times that caster can cast that spell each day. However, there is one spell level so low that (in Fifth Edition) even a 1st level caster can cast spells of that level as many times per day as they want, even if they've already expended all their other magic. These infinite-use spells are called 0th level spells, or cantrips, and they can be very useful.

Two of my favorite 0th level spells are Guidance and Resistance, which each provide a small bonus to almost anything you could want to do while playing D&D. Are you looking out for traps? You might pray for Guidance. Do you need to overcome the effects of a disease or poison? Pray for Resistance. Want to jump across a chasm? Pray for Guidance to help you time your jump. Is someone trying to manipulate you with magic? Pray for Resistance to help you retain or regain control of yourself. I'm currently playing a Cleric character who regularly prays for Guidance and Resistance to help him and his companions tackle nearly every challenge that they face, but he's not the only one who can do that.

We don't need to be able to channel holy magic in order to be able to pray for help. Anyone can pray for assistance with the hope of getting it. Often, the amount of help we get is small, almost impossible to notice, but sometimes, it's enough to make a difference. And best of all, it's free. We can pray for help as often as we need to, as many times per day as we want. There are no limits to the amount of help we can get from God each day.

It may seem like a waste of divine power to pray over simple things, like asking God to bless our meals or grant us safety as we drive from one place to another, but the power of God is infinite. It can't be wasted because it never runs out. The source of God's power is inexhaustible, no matter how frequently we pray for aid. Also, even if it was a waste of God's power, it's completely within God's power not to grant it to us. We can ask for help as much as we want; God can always say "no" whenever He needs to, even though He usually says "yes."

However, God usually only grants us such aid when we remember to ask for it, which prompts two questions: Why does God make us pray for help that He's already willing to grant us, and if He usually grants us aid just for our having asked for it, why do we ever forget to ask? It may be that God requires us to pray for aid so that we know that our blessings come from Him, rather than from mere luck or science. By praying for aid and getting it, even our everyday actions can bring us closer to God. So why do we forget to pray for aid? Why indeed.

Maybe we think it'd be a waste of God's power for Him to lend us a hand from time to time, but we should let Him be the judge of that. He has invited us to ask for His help. If He (for whatever reason) chooses not to grant us the aid that He's invited us to ask for, He's still free not to. We don't have to worry about asking too much, because God can always say "no."

Maybe we think it's not worth the time it takes to pray for help. I'll admit, a +1d4 bonus to your d20 roll sometimes isn't worth using a Standard Action to get it, but it only takes a couple of seconds, and praying for help is even easier in real life than it is in D&D. In fact, we can pray for God's help while we're in the act of doing whatever it is we want God's help in doing, so it really takes no time at all.

I think the real reason we sometimes don't ask for heavenly aid is that we simply forget to. Maybe we forget that help is available to us if only we remember to ask for it. Well, consider this your reminder. If you find that you need another reminder later, reread Alma Chapter 34 and ask yourself if there's anything so trivial that God doesn't want you to pray about it. As for me, I get a reminder of how easy it is to pray for guidance and resistance every time my Cleric character does it.