Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening,
this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.
In what ways do you trust the Lord in your life? Why do you choose to trust the Lord?
This post focuses on June 2019 Brigham Young University (BYU) Devotional and it is called, "Choose to Trust the Lord" by Sister Michalyn Steele. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional.
Sister Steele has mentioned the following; " ... I believe that the Lord has preserved many essential truths by preserving the indigenous peoples and their cultures. Just as Joseph of old stored up grain against the time of famine to save the house of Israel, and just as the record of Lehi and his children was preserved against a time of spiritual famine, indigenous peoples and cultures hold truths to teach us in this age of political, moral, and ecological turbulence.
... College is a time of tremendous growth, both intellectually and spiritually. We develop critical thinking skills and take in so much information. ... In this age of abundant information and disinformation, how do we know where to turn as we refine our beliefs and mature our testimonies? And how do we respond as our faith passes through refining fires?
My message to you today is that, whatever your trials mortal or spiritual you can choose to trust in the Lord. While so much around you is inconstant and fleeting, He is faithful. He will never fail you. You may rely on His love as an unerring truth.
In the Midst of Fiery Trials
... The Lord is there to understand and to quiet our anguish. At many points I have seen the Lord’s hand moving miraculously to order and bless the circumstances of my life. He has prepared a path, opened doors, raised up friends, and multiplied joys in my life. I have seen how these blessings have been tailored specifically for me and fitted to my particular needs. Many blessings were set in motion long before my needs arose.
... There have also been times when I have longed for the Lord’s intervention in specific ways, when I have petitioned and pleaded with the Lord for blessings that have not been realized. There have been questions that have gone unanswered and times when the heavens felt silent. In those moments the adversary has tried to whisper that no one has heard my prayers.
I have prayed and fasted for many years that the promise of my patriarchal blessing and other priesthood blessings that I would find a true companion and be a mother might be fulfilled. Those blessings have not been realized for me on my preferred timeline, despite my most fervent petitioning.
But it has not been because no one heard them. That was a lie from the adversary. My Father in Heaven has heard and answered every prayer, even when the answers have been difficult for me. ... The Lord has poured out abundant blessings meted out with the “good measure” of the Lord, “pressed down” and “running over” far beyond my merits.
But my life has not looked like the life I would have sought for myself. In coping with the Lord’s counsel to wait or to do without, I have had to learn to choose to trust the Lord. I have had to choose to let these experiences refine and deepen my faith rather than yield to the temptation to despair in the Lord and abandon my hope and faith.
Everyone passes “through fiery trials.” I know that many of you, though you may be young, are like the Savior, acquainted with grief. Many of you may be weighed down with your own sorrows, challenges, or disappointments. Some of you may be wrestling through questions concerning your faith.
I know that the Savior is intimately acquainted with your grief and sees your sorrows. He has promised one day to wipe away all tears. And He will. But, in the meantime, during those moments of fiery trial, how do we choose to trust in the Lord especially when we may, for a time, feel alone?
I hope that some of the lessons I am learning might be of some comfort to you now or in future times of need. ... In walking my path, I have been given the opportunity to choose to love and obey the Lord, even when I have felt sometimes forsaken.
... I offer three principles that have helped me choose to trust the Lord in times of trial. I offer these principles humbly knowing that you walk a path tailored for you but also confidently, trusting in the constancy of the Lord.
Principle Number 1: The Seven Generations Principle
First, I offer one lesson from the Seneca tradition. It is an idea found in many indigenous cultures in some form. It is called the seven generations principle. The seven generations principle in the Seneca culture means that we are obliged to consider the consequences and outcomes of our choices on the next seven generations.
It is a cultural value that entrenches the practice of taking the long view where possible and acting in the interest of the long term rather than the short term. The seven generations principle challenges us to pause and contemplate how our choices, when multiplied and amplified through future generations, might affect our relationships with the Creator, with one another, and with the earth.
This principle means that we strive to keep an eye on the things of eternity, even perhaps especially in the midst of blinding mortal pain. How do we maintain that long view and choose to trust the Lord when the pain of our physical or spiritual trial is so acute and present, when the suffering is sore and stubborn?
... I mean that we should seek to keep our spiritual gaze fixed on the great eternal sacrifice, the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ. The adversary seeks to distract us by fixing our focus entirely on our temporal pain and by tempting us to dwell on perceived slights and injustices, obscuring the Lord’s love.
This is one reason it is imperative that we partake of the sacrament each week, renewing our covenant to “always remember” the Savior. Just as He suffered, we will suffer as part of the mortal experience. In choosing to trust the Lord, we can consecrate our suffering to a greater understanding of His suffering and allow it to build in us a deeper capacity for compassion and mercy toward the suffering of others.
.... As Alma taught his son Helaman, “I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.” Putting our trust in God does not spare us from trials, troubles, or affliction. Instead, God has promised to support us while we are in those mortal difficulties.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught of our trials, “Rather than simply passing through these things, they must pass through us and do so in ways which sanctify these experiences for our good.” By taking the long view, as the Seneca culture counsels, and choosing to trust the Lord and His eternal timeline, we can pass through our trials and let the trials pass through us as we deepen not abandon our faith and our kindness."
Stay Tuned until next time.
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