If we will perform our part, the Lord will not fail to do His

 It is for us to act upon the principle that we started upon; to trust and have faith in God; to let this influence us in our acts one towards another.

If we will perform our part, the Lord will not fail to do His. Because others act foolishly we cannot afford to imitate them. We profess to be the Zion of God, the pure in heart. We profess to be men and women of integrity, of truth and virtue, and to have faith in God. This must not only be our profession, but our practice; we must carry out and fulfil the word and will and law of God

Chapter 16: Strengthening Our Relationship with God

John Taylor

Teachings of Presidents

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/chapter-16?lang=eng&verse=#p

God has led me from one thing to another

 I am reminded of my boyhood. At that early period of my life I learned to approach God. Many a time I have gone into the fields, and, concealing myself behind some bush, would bow before the Lord and call upon him to guide and direct me. And he heard my prayer. At times I would get other boys to accompany me. It would not hurt you, boys and girls, to call upon the Lord in your secret places, as I did. That was the spirit which I had when a little boy. And God has led me from one thing to another. … My spirit was drawn out after God then; and I feel the same yet.

Chapter 16: Strengthening Our Relationship with God

John Taylor

Teachings of Presidents

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/chapter-16?lang=eng&verse=#p

It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming.

You faces overwhelming challenges. Sometimes they are so concentrated, so unrelenting, that you may feel they are beyond your capacity to control.

Don’t face the world alone. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Prov. 3:5.)....

It was intended that life be a challenge, not so that you would fail, but that you might succeed through overcoming.

Trust in the Lord, Richard G. Scott, April 1989 

It All works Out

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.

It all works out. Don’t worry.

I say that to myself every morning.

It will all work out.

Put your trust in God,

and move forward with faith

and confidence in the future.

The Lord will not forsake us.

He will not forsake us.

If we will put our trust in Him,

if we will pray to Him,

if we will live worthy of His blessings,

He will hear our prayers.

From the funeral program for Marjorie Pay Hinckley, April 10, 2004; see also “Latter-day Counsel,” Ensign, Oct. 2000, 73.

I Had Done Everything I Could; So Leave This In God's Hands, and Everything Will Work Out Fine

Not long ago the level of my humility and understanding of my dependence on the Lord was once again tested. I was in a taxi going to the airport to catch a short flight to a place where there was a very difficult situation to solve. The taxi driver, who was not a member of the Church, looked at me through the mirror and said, “I can see you’re not well today!”

“Could you tell?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. Then he said something like, “You actually have a very negative halo around you!”

I explained to him that I had quite a hard situation to deal with, and he then asked me, “Have you done everything in your power to solve this?”

I responded I had done everything I could.

He then said something I have never forgotten: “So leave this in God’s hands, and everything will work out fine.”

Humble and Accept to Follow, Joni L. Koch, October 2023

This is my path of discipleship.

 My fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, with all my heart, I choose to stand with the Lord. I choose to stand with His chosen servants—President Russell M. Nelson and his fellow Apostles—for they speak for Him and are the stewards of the ordinances and covenants that tie me to the Savior.

When I stumble, I will keep getting up, relying on the grace and enabling power of Jesus Christ. I will stay in my covenant with Him and work through my questions by study of God’s word, by faith, and with the help of the Holy Ghost, whose guidance I trust. I will seek His Spirit every day by doing the small and simple things.

This is my path of discipleship.

And until the day that the everyday wounds of mortality are healed, I will wait upon the Lord and trust Him—His timing, His wisdom, His plan.

Arm in arm with you, I want to stand with Him forever. Wholehearted. Knowing that when we love Jesus Christ with all our hearts, He gives us all in return.

Wholehearted

October 2022

General Conference

Michelle D. Craig

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10/32craig?lang=eng&verse=#p

Peter trusted the Savior more than he trusted his boat

 Peter trusted the Savior more than he trusted his boat. And that faith gave him power to act with courage during a stressful, frightening situation....

As he walked toward the Savior, Peter was frightened by the wind and began to sink. But when Peter realized what was happening, he did not try to tread water on his own or swim back to the ship. Rather than let go of his faith in Christ, he held on more tightly, crying, “Lord, save me.”....

Through many additional faith-building experiences—some of them very, very difficult—Peter eventually became the rock-solid leader the Lord needed him to be. He accomplished great things in the Lord’s service....

Never will the plan of happiness become more real to you than when you are helping others to live it.

Is the Plan Working?

April 2022

General Conference

Adrián Ochoa

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/04/27ochoa?lang=eng&verse=#p

Go Back to the Basics

 Go Back to the Basics

There have been times when I didn’t understand certain commandments. Moments when I had questions about polygamy, same-sex attraction, or other things.

But I learned a powerful lesson from the way God taught Adam and Eve.

We’re taught that “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption” (Alma 12:32, emphasis added).

It wouldn’t surprise me if Adam and Eve had plenty of questions about the commandments they were asked to follow. But before they could understand the commandments, they first had to learn about the plan of salvation.

How well do you understand the plan of salvation? When you have questions, do you go back to the basic principles of God’s plan? As I’ve searched for answers to my questions, studying the plan of salvation has helped me receive glimpses of God’s answers.

When I focus on the basic truths I know, I’m able to stand on a firm foundation. I don’t let trivial things shake my faith. I do not know everything, but I know enough.

“I Do Not Know the Meaning of All Things,” and That’s OK

April 2022

Liahona

Megan Thomson Ramsey

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/04/young-adults/13-i-do-not-know-the-meaning-of-all-things-and-thats-ok?lang=eng&verse=#p

Looking Beyond the Mark

Pondering the goodness of God and evaluating my life during the sacrament rather than focusing only on failures and flaws helps me put my trust in Him.

 Here are some questions you could ask yourself or God during the sacrament:

How did I follow Christ’s example this week?

Whom did I serve?

When did I feel the Spirit this week? Why?

What is a Christlike trait I’m trying to develop? How am I doing?

Is there anything in my life I should pray for help with?

Is there anyone I need to forgive?

What is one problem, big or small, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ helped me with this week?

Pondering the goodness of God and evaluating my life during the sacrament rather than focusing only on failures and flaws helps me put my trust in Him.

Discerning the Good in Ourselves

September 2021

2021

Emily Abel

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2021/09/young-adults/discerning-the-good-in-ourselves?lang=eng&verse=#p

If ever a person might have felt that his prayers were not answered in the way he had hoped, it could have been Joseph.

In other situations, when our worthy desires are not granted in the way we had hoped, it may actually be for our ultimate benefit. For example, Joseph the son of Jacob was envied and hated by his brothers to the point that they plotted Joseph’s murder. Instead, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. If ever a person might have felt that his prayers were not answered in the way he had hoped, it could have been Joseph. In reality, his apparent misfortune resulted in great blessings to him and saved his family from starvation. Later, after having become a trusted leader in Egypt, with great faith and wisdom he said to his brothers:

“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
“For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
“And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
“So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.”

....As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Faith also includes trust in God’s timing.”

Answers to Prayer

April 2019

General Conference

Brook P. Hales

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/13hales?lang=eng&verse=#p

To Forgive Does Not Mean You Reenter a Toxic Relationship

“Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven,” Christ taught in New Testament times. And in our day: “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.” It is, however, important for some of you living in real anguish to note what He did not say. He did not say, “You are not allowed to feel true pain or real sorrow from the shattering experiences you have had at the hand of another.” Nor did He say, “In order to forgive fully, you have to reenter a toxic relationship or return to an abusive, destructive circumstance.” But notwithstanding even the most terrible offenses that might come to us, we can rise above our pain only when we put our feet onto the path of true healing. That path is the forgiving one walked by Jesus of Nazareth, who calls out to each of us, “Come, follow me.”

The Ministry of Reconciliation

October 2018

General Conference

Jeffrey R. Holland

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/the-ministry-of-reconciliation?lang=eng&verse=#p

The Ordinance of the Laying On of Hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost

The ordinance of laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost requires us to trust in Him, rely upon Him, follow Him, and press forward in Him with the assistance of His Holy Spirit

Gather Together in One All Things in Christ

October 2018

General Conference

David A. Bednar

You will find that every doctrine, every principle, no matter how universally believed, if it is not in accord with the divine word of the Lord to his servants, will perish.

"So far as the philosophy and wisdom of the world are concerned, they mean nothing unless they conform to the revealed word of God. Any doctrine, whether it comes in the name of religion, science, philosophy, or whatever it may be, if it is in conflict with the revealed word of the Lord, will fail. It may appear plausible. It may be put before you in language that appeals and which you may not be able to answer. It may appear to be established by evidence that you cannot controvert, but all you need to do is to abide your time. Time will level all things. You will find that every doctrine, every principle, no matter how universally believed, if it is not in accord with the divine word of the Lord to his servants, will perish. Nor is it necessary for us to try to stretch the word of the Lord in a vain attempt to make it conform to these theories and teachings. The word of the Lord shall not pass away unfulfilled, but these false doctrines and theories will all fail. Truth, and only truth, will remain when all else has perished."

Chapter 10: Our Search for Truth, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, (2013), 139–50

The More We Walk in the Light the Brighter It Becomes; The More We Walk in the Dark the Darker It Becomes

The more we incline our hearts and minds toward God, the more heavenly light distills upon our souls. And each time we willingly and earnestly seek that light, we indicate to God our readiness to receive more light. Gradually, things that before seemed hazy, dark, and remote become clear, bright, and familiar to us.

By the same token, if we remove ourselves from the light of the gospel, our own light begins to dim—not in a day or a week but gradually over time—until we look back and can’t quite understand why we had ever believed the gospel was true. Our previous knowledge might even seem foolish to us because what once was so clear has again become blurred, hazy, and distant.

This is why Paul was so insistent that the message of the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, “but unto [those who] are saved it is the power of God.”14
Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, October 2014 General Conference