My Storms, My Fear, His Peace

Mark's biblical account of Christ's ministry teaches us an invaluable lesson about the Master. One verse in Mark 4 reads: "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). As we navigate through the storms of life, we must remember that Christ is in our ship, and that He is all-powerful. He truly can do all things. If we ask Him, "all things are possible..." and He will turn our worldly fears into godly fear. He will calm our souls and our lives. Christ is the equilibrium that we so desperately seek. As prophets of God prepare to speak in about a month, my personal goal is to thoroughly evaluate my life to determine areas that are not so "calm" and "still" because I know that if I prepare my heart and mind, I can receive counsel and guidance for my life. My storms and my fear will be tempered with the sweet peace that is only His to give.

The Process of Perfection

In Matthew 5, Christ gives the following command: "Be ye therefore perfect." The simple reality is that, in this life, we will never attain perfection. The process of perfection, though, is one that we can follow and in doing so, we can learn more about ourselves, Christ, and the love that He has for all of us. The Savior, the Master Teacher, taught us that "strait is the way and narrow is the gate" that leads to eternal life; and the only way we can be on track to make it through that gate and along the way that He has prepared is by following Him. Because perfection is a process, one of the most important things we must remember is to be patient with ourselves. Life is hard. There are a lot of things that potentially stand in the way between where we are now and the "perfect" that we are commanded to be. Maybe it's best to add another command that Christ often gives: "come." So maybe we are supposed to be perfect by coming unto Him; in other words, maybe what He's really asking is that we try our best, that we "learn of [Him]" and strive to be more like Him, recognizing that we can work to be-come perfect over time, rather than striving to be perfect right now.

"Look to God And Live"

“But behold, this is not all; these are not the only ones who have spoken concerning the Son of God.

Behold, he was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live.

But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them.

O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?

…cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection...

And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen. (Alma 33:18-23)

“O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live.” (Alma 37:46-47)

“…and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.” (1 Nephi 17:41)

Although I didn't realize it at the time, these three scriptures have been constantly in my thoughts. As I'm sure many of you feel - if not most of you - I feel inadequate in so many aspects of my life. There are things that I'm good at, but there are many more things that I struggle with. And it's those things that I seem to worry so much about. Yes, these weaknesses are frustrating, heartbreaking, challenging, upsetting, exhausting, and sometimes embarrassing... but I've remembered a few important principles as I've tried to work through these. One, we're not always going to be perfect. There may be moments in our lives where things really seem to be going well - we're "firing on all cylinders" so to speak - but it's not always going to be like that, and that's okay. Life's ups help us stay motivated during the downs and they help us learn more about how God is; and life's downs return humility and dependency to our lives amidst the joys and successes of life's ups, and it's during the downs that we learn who God is.

Let me phrase it a little differently. Life sometimes seems to be all ups or all downs, but I believe that truly it isn't like that. The only thing that really makes us feel truly invincible or totally helpless is our attitude. They both result from a lack of faith. Life is full of both ups and downs, at the same time, and it's how we accept, confront, and overcome those challenges and success that help us learn more about God. Through the ups, we learn how God is and what heaven will be like - what it's like to experience and live in a world full of inexplicable joy, the pure love of Christ, and a myriad of other positive emotions. And through the downs, we learn who God is - that He is our Father, that He loves and cares about us, that He is an Almighty God through whom we can be saved, cleansed, forgiven, succored, mended, and healed. The ups and downs together remind us that there is a path, and that path to redemption and joy is quite simple. The way is prepared by the Son of God, our Savior, Redeemer, and Elder Brother.

And most of all, with every experience combined, we learn that there is only one way - God's way - to be humble and successful, truly happy even during the most devastating times, perfectly compassionate and justly condemning; and we learn that the way is prepared and all that we must do when we find ourselves in the downs of life is "look to God and live."

He Answers My Prayers

200 years ago, a boy named Joseph Smith saw God, our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. They were, and are, and forever will be two separate individuals with unique roles in bringing about our salvation.

In the boy Joseph's own words about the experience, he said:

“After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

“But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

“It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

I love this passage of scripture because I learn so much about the Plan of Salvation and Satan’s limited but very real power; the power of God and the closeness I truly have to Him; and the infinite power which I can call upon whenever we need it. There is a pattern which we can follow in order to receive answers to our prayers, and for the Prophet Joseph, that pattern began before his vision in the Sacred Grove.

It’s important to recognize that we have to do our part to gain answers to our prayers. We must formulate and ponder our questions, study them out in the scriptures, and meditate how the principles and doctrines of the Gospel apply to our question. We must have faith that we will receive answers to our prayers, and humility sufficient to recognize the answers when they come. One other important principle we learn from Joseph is that we must make a plan of action, if necessary, and then go to the Lord. Joseph spent some time attending different churches, studied the scriptures, and then he determined that he would go to the woods to pray and ask God Himself which church the boy should join.

Joseph Smith saw God, our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, as a result of diligent study, mediation, faith, and humble prayer.

There are two great principles to be learned from the First Vision. The first is that Satan has a very real and significant power, and yet we can overcome his power if we pray to our Father in Heaven. Temptations, distractions from and confusion about religion, faith, and the Savior have become commonplace in our society. But Christ has shown us the manner by which we can pray, and we can pray any time, whenever we need help. This first principle shows us that we have been given an incredible power – specifically, prayer – by which we can overcome the adversary.

The second principle we learn in these verses is that God answers our prayers and that he is listening; when we pray, there is someone at the other end of our prayer listening and waiting to respond. He will respond on his own time schedule, with the response that is best for us, but Heavenly Father will answer our prayers. He loves each one of us – as Elder Holland so gracefully said, “the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life.” We are His children and He is our Father. At any time and anywhere, we can pray for anything and anyone. Whether that prayer be in our heart or vocalized, for ourselves or for the benefit of others, in the form of a prayer or a blessing, Heavenly Father hears and answers all of our prayers according to His wisdom, and our faith.