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 January 2014, and it is called "Healing = Courage + Action + Grace" by Jonathan G. Sandberg. This post is part four. I would like to share with you some highlights whilst I was reading the Devotional, and I hope that you would be able to read something new whilst reading through this post.
Jonathan has mentioned the following; "... Grace
... What is grace? I love the definition provided by David A. Bednar in a devotional given while he was president of BYU–Idaho. He quoted the Bible Dictionary, which states that grace can be defined as divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.
... It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals ... receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power. After reading this definition, President Bednar then added, “Thus the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity.”
The scriptures are full of examples of the grace of Jesus Christ as He ministered to people struggling to do and be good but coming up short. The scriptures teach of Him reaching out to His people at their breaking point and providing strength, patience, joy, comfort, assurances, peace, faith, hope, courage, and determination and even wiping away the tears from their eyes.
The grace of Jesus Christ, His bounteous mercy and love, is available to us if we but have the courage to reach out to Him. Sometimes that grace comes directly through the Holy Ghost, and we can feel His clear and specific love for us. Sometimes that grace comes as Christ touches another person’s heart and prompts her or him to share, bless, and uplift another.
The grace of Jesus Christ, His bounteous mercy and love, is available to us if we but have the courage to reach out to Him. Sometimes that grace comes directly through the Holy Ghost, and we can feel His clear and specific love for us. Sometimes that grace comes as Christ touches another person’s heart and prompts her or him to share, bless, and uplift another.
In other words, grace is often made manifest through the courage and action of a person who reaches out to serve another. ... President Monson was a minister of grace, and we can be one too. Grace is the power by which healing occurs. In every aspect of His mortal and postmortal ministry, Christ went about healing all manner of afflictions.
His part is to be our atoning Savior, and our part is to be courageous enough to act. He then provides the grace and healing. However, sometimes we may not appreciate the manifestations of His grace because healing blessings do not always come in the form we ask.
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| "Captivated by his Grace." |
Sometimes His grace is made manifest by letting us sit and struggle with an issue. Again, our Heavenly Father and Savior are more interested in our growth and progression than in our comfort and convenience. Moments of struggle often bring the greatest growth.
Permit me to illustrate this point with an example from the life of my sweetheart and best friend, Sharon. In April 2002, Sharon’s fifty-six-year-old father, Mike, suffered a major heart attack one day at work. As a result of a lack of oxygen to the brain, he was in a coma for a week.
Many friends and family members prayed and fasted, he received multiple blessings, and his name was placed on the prayer roll at multiple temples, but, regardless of these efforts, it was his time to die (see D&C 42:43–48). As the months passed, we came to some measure of peace regarding his early and unexpected death.
At the time, Sharon was working with the young children at church as the Primary president. It was her turn to teach the children, and the topic was “God Hears and Answers My Prayers.” We talked a lot about that lesson and the dilemma it presented for her, and Doctrine and Covenants 18:18 and 88:64 were particularly helpful at the time.
My wife said, “I know God hears and answers our prayers, but if in the end He is going to do what is His will, why should I pray for what I want and need? My dad died anyway because it was God’s will. My prayers have not been the same since he died.”
If you have not yet experienced that kind of despair in your prayers, you likely will. For some of you that moment is now. So what did Sharon teach the children? Up until the night before she was not sure what to say. When the day came, she simply taught, through her tears, “I know that God hears and answers every prayer.
He does not always give us the answer we want, and that really hurts. But I believe you will do better in your life by praying than by not praying. That is why I pray every day.” Acting on true principles, even when your heart says otherwise, takes true courage. And as a result, Sharon received a measure of healing that day through the grace of Jesus Christ.
One of my favorite parts about being married to Sharon and there are many is to listen to her pray in faith for our children, extended family, and others in need. She knows how to talk to Heavenly Father. ... By way of conclusion and testimony, I know that Jesus Christ is the great Healer.
Over many years, in numerous settings, I have seen wounds of horrific abuse, long-standing addiction, loss that has shattered the soul, and heartache beyond description be addressed, overcome, and resolved through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know He is a real, living, loving God.
I love and honor Him. I know His grace is sufficient meaning big or powerful enough to help us with all our problems. I know His promises to us are real and true. He can and will cleanse and heal us as He has said (see Ezekiel 36:25–28). ..."
If you would like to read the whole Devotional either now or in your own time, here is the link below.
Stay Tuned until next time.
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