What does it mean to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus?

 What does it mean to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus?

There are several possibilities that could be considered in answering this question. I will mention a few. Being valiant in the testimony of Jesus surely includes nurturing and strengthening that testimony. True disciples do not ignore the seemingly small things that sustain and strengthen their testimony of Jesus, such as prayer, study of the scriptures, Sabbath observance, partaking of the sacrament, repentance, ministering, and worship in the house of the Lord. President Nelson reminds us that “with frightening speed, a testimony that is not nourished daily ‘by the good word of God’ [Moroni 6:4] can crumble. Thus, … we need daily experiences worshipping the Lord and studying His gospel.” Then he added: “I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time. As you do, notice what happens to your positive spiritual momentum.”....

Being valiant in the testimony of Jesus means encouraging others, by word and example, to likewise be valiant, especially those of our own families. Elder Neal A. Maxwell once addressed “the essentially ‘honorable’ members [of the Church] who are skimming over the surface instead of deepening their discipleship and who are casually engaged rather than ‘anxiously engaged’ [Doctrine and Covenants 76:75; 58:27].” Noting that all are free to choose, Elder Maxwell lamented: “Unfortunately, however, when some choose slackness, they are choosing not only for themselves, but for the next generation and the next. Small equivocations in parents can produce large deviations in their children! Earlier generations in a family may have reflected dedication, while some in the current generation evidence equivocation. Sadly, in the next, some may choose dissension, as erosion takes its toll.”

The Testimony of Jesus

April 2024

General Conference

D. Todd Christofferson

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/51christofferson?lang=eng&verse=#p

Last Statement by Elder Maxwell is similar to this:

It Won't Help Anyone If We Go Over The Edge...Explaining Through the Roar of the Falls...That We Really Did Know the Church Was True

Holding Back Keeps So Many of Us Straggling In the Foothills and Off the Peaks in the Adventure of Full Discipleship

While we see this quality in the quiet but spiritually luxuriant lives of the genuine, spiritual heroes and heroines about us, the lack of it keeps so many of us straggling in the foothills and off the peaks in the adventure of full discipleship. I refer to our hesitancy and our holding back in submitting fully to the Lord and His purposes for us.
Neal A. Maxwell, April 1985 General Conference, "Willing to Submit"

A Remarkable Story of Faith--Catherine Curtis Spencer

I think of an account I read about the wife of one of our early pioneers. Her name was Catherine Curtis Spencer. Her husband, Orson Spencer, was a sensitive, well-educated man. She had been reared in Boston and was cultured and refined. She and Orson had six children. After leaving Nauvoo, her delicate health declined from exposure and hardship. Elder Spencer wrote to her parents and asked if she could return to live with them while he established a home for her in the West. Their reply: “Let her renounce her degrading faith, and she can come back, but never until she does.” Sister Spencer would not renounce her faith. When her parents’ letter was read to her, she asked her husband to get his Bible and read to her from the book of Ruth: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Outside the storm raged, the wagon covers leaked, and friends held milk pans over Sister Spencer’s head to keep her dry. In these conditions, and without a word of complaint, she closed her eyes for the last time.10

BYU Speeches November 6 2005, Decisions Determine Destiny, Thomas S. Monson
A Prophets Voice - Messages From Thomas S. Monson p. 366

After An Encounter With the Living Son of the Living God, Nothing Is Ever Again to Be as It Was Before!

Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world....

Did you, like they, think that this work could be killed simply by killing me? Did you, like they, think the cross and the nails and the tomb were the end of it all and each could blissfully go back to being whatever you were before? Children, did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?”....

In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”¹⁵ to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live....

I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.”¹⁶ That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well. To the youth of the Church rising up to missions and temples and marriage, we say: “Love God and remain clean from the blood and sins of this generation....

And having set our “hand to the plough,”¹⁷ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. 

 OCTOBER 2012 GENERAL CONFERENCE - THE FIRST GREAT COMMANDMENT - ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

Not So Much Where We Stand, As in What Direction We Are Moving

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. counseled, “I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor” (The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table[1858], 105).

 OCTOBER 2012 CAN YE FEEL SO NOW? - ELDER QUENTIN L. COOK

Easiness and Willingness To Believe Not Circumstance Dependant But Commtment

An examination of our lives will reveal periods when we found it easier to believe the word of God. Periods of significant change, such as marriage or the birth of a child; periods of intense service from a new calling or a mission; periods in our youth with a wonderful bishop, youth leaders, and seminary teachers; periods of trials; and periods of growth from learning for the first time about the gospel are all periods of an easiness to believe. Perhaps the most significant period is childhood. As a child I found it easy to believe the word of God taught to me by valiant parents and grandparents. No wonder we are admonished to become as little children to inherit eternal life (see3 Nephi 11:38). No wonder we are taught to “bring up [our] children in light and truth” (D&C 93:40).

If you are like me, you will find what really brought an easiness and willingness to believe were not the circumstances but the commitment to live the gospel during these periods of life. You were found more often on your knees and immersed in the scriptures during these periods. You found it easier to gather for family home evening and family prayer. You found it easy to be in church and to worship in the temple. You found it easy to pay tithes and offerings. Indeed, the daily living of the gospel brings a softness of heart needed to have an easiness and willingness to believe the word of God.

Michael T. Ringwood, "An Easiness and Willingness to Believe", Ensign, Nov. 2009, 100–102

We Need to Consistently Do More of What We Know Is Right

As disciples of the Savior, we are not merely striving to know more; rather, we need to consistently do more of what we know is right and become better.

David A. Bednar, "More Diligent and Concerned at Home", Ensign, Nov. 2009, 17–20

It's True, Isn't It? Then What Else Matters?

Elder Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of meeting a young naval officer from Asia. The officer had not been a Christian, but during training in the United States, he had learned about the Church and was baptized. He was now preparing to return to his native land. UAdd a Note

President Hinckley asked the officer: “Your people are not Christians. What will happen when you return home a Christian, and, more particularly, a Mormon Christian?”

The officer’s face clouded, and he replied: “My family will be disappointed. … As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.”

President Hinckley asked, “Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?”

With his dark eyes moistened by tears, he answered with a question: “It’s true, isn’t it?”

President Hinckley responded, “Yes, it is true.”

To which the officer replied, “Then what else matters?”¹

Through the years, I have reflected on these words: “It’s true, isn’t it? Then what else matters?” These questions have helped me put difficult issues in proper perspective.

The cause in which we are laboring is true. We respect the beliefs of our friends and neighbors. We are all sons and daughters of God. We can learn much from other men and women of faith and goodness, as President Faust taught us so well.

Yet we know that Jesus is the Christ. He is resurrected. In our day, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the priesthood of God has been restored. We have the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon is what we claim it to be. The promises of the temple are certain. The Lord Himself has declared the unique and singular mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be “a light to the world” and “a messenger … to prepare the way before [Him]”² even as “the gospel roll[s] forth unto the ends of the earth.”³

It’s true, isn’t it? Then what else matters?

Author: Neil L. Andersen

Title: It’s True, Isn’t It? Then What Else Matters?

Where: Ensign, May 2007, 74–75

Semi-Committed & This Isn't A Time for Spiritual Weaklings

Listen to those words, my young brethren: valiant, courage, strength, active, true. We don’t need spiritually weak and semicommitted young men. We don’t need you to just fill a position; we need your whole heart and soul. We need vibrant, thinking, passionate missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t a time for spiritual weaklings. We cannot send you on a mission to be reactivated, reformed, or to receive a testimony. We just don’t have time for that. We need you to be filled with “faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God” (D&C 4:5).

Author: M. Russell Ballard

Title: The Greatest Generation of Missionaries

Where: Ensign, Nov 2002, 46

Long After the Emotion Under Which You Made the Commitment Has Died

We have to be committed. But to be committed 100 percent, we need the help of the Lord. You need to have the discipline and commitment to do the things you’ve promised, long after the emotion under which you made the commitment has died.”

Author: M. Russell Ballard
Title: The Power of Commitment
Where: New Era, Nov 1989, 4