Mormon Musings

Help from the Lord generally comes in increments. He can immediately cure serious illnesses or disabilities or even allow the dead to be raised. But the general pattern is that improvement comes in sequential steps. That plan gives us an opportunity to discover what the Lord expects us to learn. It requires our patience to recognize His timetable. It provides growth from our efforts and trust in Him and the opportunity to express gratitude for the help given. Often we have difficulty mastering lessons the Lord wants us to learn when things are going too well in our lives. When there is suffering or pain, we ask ourselves a lot of questions. Some of them ought to be: What does the Lord want me to learn from this experience? What do I need to do? What do I need to change? Whom do I need to serve? Or what characteristic must I improve? Pondering and prayer will help us understand what we are to learn from the challenges we are asked to overcome.

“If I ask [God] to give me wisdom concerning any requirements in life, or in regard to my own course, or that of my friends, my family, my children, or those that I preside over, and get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgment will teach me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and He will do so to all intents and purposes.” Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses  3:205

 “Our Father in Heaven is not an umpire who is trying to count us out. He is not a competitor who is trying to outsmart us. He is not a prosecutor who is trying to convict us. He is a loving Father who wants our happiness and eternal progress, and who will help us all He can if we will but give Him in our lives an opportunity to do so.” Richard L. Evans, quoted by N. Eldon Tanner in April 1971 General Conference http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1971/04/choose-you-this-day?lang=eng

The Lord has probably spoken enough such "comforting words" to supply the whole universe, it would seem, and yet we see all around us unhappy Latter-day Saints, worried Latter-day Saints, and gloomy Latter-day Saints into whose troubled hearts not one of these innumerable consoling words seems to be allowed to enter. In fact, I think some of us must have that remnant of Puritan heritage still with us that says it is somehow wrong to be comforted or helped, that we are supposed to be miserable about something. Consider, for example, the Savior's benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or ever will know, he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. . . . Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). I submit to you that may be one of the Savior's commandments that is, even in th...

Everything in the Gospel teaches us that we can change if we really want to, that we can be helped if we truly ask for it, that we can be made whole, whatever the problems of the past. Jeffrey R. Holland, address to religious educators at a symposium on the New Testament, Brigham Young University, August 8, 2000

No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, God will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character. He is an unchanging Being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace, we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments. George Q. Cannon Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.   Isaiah 41:10 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow th...

" Into every adult human life come experiences like unto the battling of the storm-tossed voyagers with contrary winds and threatening seas; ofttimes the night of struggle and danger is far advanced before succor appears; and then, too frequently the saving aid is mistaken for a great terror. As came unto Peter and his terrified companions in the midst of turbulent waters, so comes to all who toil in faith, the voice of the Deliverer— 'It is I; be not afraid .'"  (emphasis added) James E. Talmage Jesus The Christ,  pp. 313-14

"Brothers and sisters, whatever your distress,  please  don't give up and  please  don't yield to fear. I have always been touched that as his son was departing for his mission to England, Brother Bryant S. Hinckley gave young Gordon a farewell embrace and then slipped him a handwritten note with just five words taken from the fifth chapter of Mark: 'Be not afraid, only believe.'(Mark 5:36 ).  I think also of that night when Christ rushed to the aid of His frightened disciples, walking as He did on the water to get to them, calling out, 'It is I; be not afraid.' Peter exclaimed, 'Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.' Christ's answer to him was as it  always  is  every  time: ' Come,'  He said. Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel's side and into the troubled waters.  While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord, the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well—h...