Tuesday was a crazy day! I started my "Tune in to the Lord" October. It started off great! I made it the entire day without using Facebook, though I was sorely tempted, and listened to a talk by Elder Holland instead of music while I got ready. The talk was one that he had given at a BYU devotional in 1999. It is called "Cast Not Away Therefore, Your Confidence". Elder Holland discusses how after we have spiritual experiences, Satan will come and try to shake our faith and our confidence in the experience. He shared examples of Moses seeing God and a vision of the whole earth, right after that Satan came and tempted Moses to worship him instead. So often we have revelation or spiritual feelings and then we have trials and temptations come right after. As Elder Holland said, "Don't let your guard down". We can't let this fallen world and what is going on here shake the faith that we have. When we start to fear and tremble, faith leaves.
This principle was reiterated to me later on Tuesday evening. My roommate has been struggling with things in her life. She has bipolar and hasn't been able to keep a job that can actually pay her bills. A couple months ago she finally got a full time job, where she would be able to start saving some of her earnings. Yesterday, she put in her two weeks notice because ever since she got the job, she has been extremely stressed about how she will get to and from work. While talking with her it was evident that she was afraid that she is a burden on everyone and that the only course of action was to quit. She also explained to me that she doesn't believe that God and Christ can take away the pain that she feels. She isn't happy and nothing is going to change that, according to her. She said that every time something good comes into her life, or a "blessing", right afterwards a trial comes or something overshadows the good thing. Her explanation of this seemed to be exactly what Elder Holland had been talking about in his devotional. I wanted to explain to her that she was probably head on about all of the problems that come up right after a blessing comes into her life. We live in a fallen world. We will have good things and bad things happen to us, what we need to decide is whether or not we will trust God or not. One thing I know is that when I let my hard times get me down and don't trust God to help me through the rough patch, it lasts longer and is harder to get through. Elder Holland hit it on the head. We need to cling to our confidence in Christ and Heavenly Father. When we have faith that Our father and brother are looking out for us and will help us get through this life, fear cannot be there. Just like where there is light, darkness can't be. Faith triumphs over fear. We need to trust and not cast away our confidence in our maker and our Savior. They are both here to help us and bless our lives.
My last thought on this is, even if the problem and struggle you are going through seems never ending, remember that Christ knows exactly how you feel! He has been through everything that you are going through. Also, when I am going through a tough time, I try to remember the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 122:7. In this verse it says, "know thou, my son (or daughter), that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." Trials strengthen us if we let them. They allow us to learn to lean on our redeemer, Christ, even more. And to realize that we can't do anything without His help.
Oh, and here is the link for the talk that Elder Holland gave. Cast Not Away Therefore, Your Confidence and here is a link to D&C 122:7
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