"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
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