Endurance ~ Part Two

Good Morning, or Good Afternoon, or Good Evening, 

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish. 

This post focuses on a BYU Devotional in May 1995 and it is called, "Endurance" by Robert K. Conlee. This post is part two. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional recently and I hope that you would learn something new while you are reading this post.

Brother Conlee has mentioned the following; 

"A second category is enduring the individual conditions of this life—the unique set of circumstances peculiar to us at any given time. 

These may be small, such as ... or why you did not achieve an A in a class in spite of every diligent effort. They may be big, such as prolonged health problems or the death of a loved one. They might be financial burdens that seem insurmountable. Or, as parents, we may have to endure the often incorrect use of free agency by our children. ...

In all these, the test comes in not denouncing our faith or blaming God for our trials. So many times strong members of the Church, when faced with such conditions, denounce God for not righting the set of conditions that brings them agony. By so doing they cease enduring and stand to risk all they have worked for spiritually to that point.

... The counsel of President Kimball seems applicable. He wrote: If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith. ... Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood. [Faith Precedes the Miracle (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), p. 97] ...

A third area that requires considerable spiritual strength is enduring the persecution that comes from trying to be in the world but not of the world. 

All of the prophets have been persecuted for the Lord’s sake, and many have given their lives rather than denounce the gospel. True followers must never be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot let the media shake our faith. We cannot let the so-called learned argue against the simple whisperings of the Holy Ghost. ... If the Holy Ghost has testified to you that Jesus is the Christ ... and that this is the Lord’s church, then we must remain allegiant to that testimony to qualify for the blessings of endurance regardless of the events of the world that would conspire against that knowledge. If the Church is true before calamity and during easy times, then it is still true during times of trial and adversity.

... Now, given that trials exist and that all of us will face these trials, how are we expected to endure them?
When we want to gain physical endurance we must train the body by subjecting it to an overload. Weight lifters lift weights to strengthen the muscles to be able to lift more. Runners run long distances to allow the cardiovascular system and muscles to adapt to provide the necessary delivery and use of oxygen to promote endurance. To increase our spiritual endurance we must train spiritually.

When a sudden trial overload comes, we must already be trained in order to endure it. This training involves praying every day so that when we need to pray more fervently we are already accustomed to it. This training also involves regular scripture study so that our testimonies are firm and our understanding of God’s plan is deep. ... This training involves regular Sunday worship, from which we gain the strength to discipline our lives and renew our covenants. Just as we build a physical reservoir through training, we can also develop a spiritual one as well.

Assuming we have been willing to train and to pay the price for spiritual endurance, what are the mechanisms by which we ultimately endure the trials of life? ... We must place our trust in the Lord and allow the Lord’s spirit to lift us. This was expressed by Jacob when he said to his fellow Nephites: “But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions” (Jacob 3:1). The scriptures are replete with the admonition to rely on the Lord.

"Suffering produces endurance." - Romans 5:5.

... The question is: How do we rely on the Lord? How do we avoid the depression that often accompanies the trials of life? We do it by accepting the reality of the Atonement. We often think of the Atonement only in terms of relief from sins and guilt. It is clearly that, but it is more, as we read in Alma about the Savior:

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me." - [Alma 7:11–13]

How does the Lord carry our burdens? Like all other principles of the gospel, it requires faith and effort. We pray earnestly and emotionally for the Lord to strengthen us and lift us, to prepare a way for us to endure ... I have a strong testimony that the Lord accepts our stress and blesses us with strength and courage and hope to continue the fight. Over the years I have had the occasion to pray with great emotion for the well-being of my children and for the strength to allow them to suffer the consequences for the exercise of free agency. I have felt the inner peace that I could endure.

... I want to make another point regarding our reliance on the Lord to carry us through the trials of life. Learned men and women of the world have developed coping strategies to help people endure the trials of life that do not always involve faith. Unbelievers do not go off the deep end the moment adversity strikes because they do not rely on God. Most see their way through. But the believer who turns to God for refuge not only finds the comfort he or she seeks but gains an increase in testimony of the reality of the Savior and of the Atonement. This is the higher purpose of trials in God’s plan - to bring his children to the knowledge of him and his son.

... This is what Moroni meant when he said, “I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith” (Ether 12:6). ... Thus we see that the fruits of enduring in the Lord is the miracle of testimony, and testimony helps us to endure to the end. My talk would not be complete if I did not rehearse for you the eternal blessings that come from enduring. In 2 Nephi 31:20, we read: "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

Eternal life seems so far away as we live the daily trials of this earthly probation. But listen to this promise in the Doctrine and Covenants: For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be. God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now; Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory; A time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest.

All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And also, if there be bounds set to the heavens or to the seas, or to the dry land, or to the sun, moon, or star - All the times of their revolutions, all the appointed days, months, and years, and all the days of their days, months, and years, and all their glories, laws, and set times, shall be revealed in the days of the dispensation of the fulness of times. [D&C 121:25–31] In the temple covenant of marriage we learn about sharing all that the Father has and about receiving thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and dominions. All these will be ours if we endure to the end.

But even in this life we often are recipients of the blessings that follow righteous endurance. Such blessings usually come after faith has been demonstrated. ... The thing is, we never know what blessings await us when we are asked to endure or when they will come, only that they will assuredly come. I bear testimony that the Lord knows us and knows our needs. ... If we seek the Lord to abide with us, we can make it through the darkest night."

You may would like to or not to read the Devotional either now or in your own time, here's the link below.
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/robert-k-conlee/endurance/

Stay Tuned until next time.