MIGHTY TO ENDURE

 

"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. 

If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there would be no evil – all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls. Should all prayers be immediately answered according our 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.” 

(President Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p 97).

 

I have just one thing to add to this powerful message. Years ago I read an article written by a young woman in the Church whose father had died of cancer. She described his end as horrific. She said she learnt that the popular belief that ‘God would not give us anything we could not handle’ is false. She was convinced that God would do exactly that, for one purpose and one purpose only, to bring us to Christ, because this is what happened to her father. I wholeheartedly agree with this concept because I believe that everything in this life is designed for this very purpose: to bring us to the Saviour who can make us mighty to endure; deliver us from any evil; and ultimately bring us to salvation. Whatever the plan for our life, whatever the individual tutoring we have agreed to before we were born, we have this promise: “I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst…..” (D&C 49:27).

 

The winds of tribulation scatter my hopes

Like feathers they lift to the sky

They find you there ever waiting to answer my pleas

To restore that which is lost

To renew that which is broken

To gift that which was never foreseen

To make me rise to heights unknown

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

OUR MISERY

 

Whenever I study the Old Testament, I am astounded by the Saviour’s willingness to rescue and deliver the children of Israel from the effects of their continuous round of apostasy and repentance. He did this for one reason, because ‘his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel’….(Judges 10:16).

We are told The Atonement was performed for each person individually and not for God’s children collectively. I myself cannot fully comprehend that but I do wholeheartedly believe it. I know that the Saviour sorrows for our individual weakened state of mortality and that the healing effects of the Atonement are truly efficacious individually because I have witnessed this personally in my own life. There was a time following my divorce when I thought the pain I was going through was going to consume me. I knew that no person or healing method on earth could deliver me from it and that the Saviour of all mankind was my only hope. My daily, and sometimes hourly, petitions were carefully worded to include my complete faith and trust in His power of deliverance. Not only was I healed but I was given the power to forgive. To this day I cannot hold a grudge and am quick to forgive anyone who wrongs me in any way. I know that only the Saviour could have gifted me this power because forgiveness is central to the perfection of His character.

I testify to you that your faith can access the Saviour’s merciful power to heal you, give you strength to overcome, and lift you, because He ‘feels your misery’. Believe it, pray for it, and see it. He will come to those who believe He is the one true and living God who can sustain, empower and deliver. You have nothing to fear from the debilitating and crushing effects of mortality. You, who are of the elect House of Israel, are meant for greater things. You are meant to be lifted and exalted. You are special. You are loved. You are counted on. Be comforted and believe.

• Cathryne Allen