"And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day."
Alma 38:5
I really love the idea here that the more we put our trust in God, the more he will deliver us. And, of course for all my talk of "ideas" I want to be sure that we are all clear here--this is true. It is real, not hypothetical. The more we trust God, the more he can, and does, help us. It works. :)
I can't even begin to tell you how many times that God has delivered me or solved my problems, but one sort of funny story is when I was living in Saint Louis and I had been in my new apartment for several weeks, but I hadn't finished unpacking. I had a big pile that I still needed to go through, but it wasn't anything I needed immediately, and so I just kept putting it off. I also was really struggling with liking my new place. I mean, the walls were painted green, and the heater was iffy. It would kick on, but it didn't seem to maintain the temperature very well. Stuff like that.
So, anyway, of course I prayed about all of this, explaining to God what I was trying to accomplish and to change in my life and improvements that I was making, but that I probably needed some extra motivation to solve these household things that I kept just blowing off as not a priority. And as I watched over a very short period of time, all my problems were solved... First, my heater stopped working entirely, then my house flooded. (Yes, I know, hilarious in retrospect, and actually sort of funny at the time too. Remind me not to pray for motivation anymore.)
Anyway, for the heater, finally faced with it actually conked completely out, I was motivated. I called the first person on a Google search and they were a couple of blocks away and came over in a couple of hours and my heater was back on and actually working *well.* I was finally warm, and that improved my attitude quite a bit. Then, when the house flooded, I suddenly (stop snickering) had the motivation to sort through everything, because, you know, it was wet, and I needed to take care of it. And then, when they redid the whole place *because* of the flooding, guess what? I got to pick the new paint color. So, God not only solved every one of my "big" problems that I took to him, but he even cared enough to help me get the place painted a nicer color. It wasn't my favorite prayer-answering event when it was happening, but it definitely was an answer, and a deliverance.
I know this principle to be true, but I also know that we can't always take someone else's word, especially with things that are so important. I also know that we each need to develop our own testimonies. So, today, I encourage you to try it, and hey, even if you already know it, let's all try it... it isn't something that we ever stop learning. :) Let's get on our knees and pour out our hearts to God about the things that are on our minds, small or large. Let's go to him with our problems, and then let's do our part in believing in and doing what God asks, and watch God do the rest. God might help us solve a problem in a totally different way than we were expecting, but as we trust him, he *will* deliver us.
As we try the experiment, let's try something else too. Let's write in our journals about it... our hopes, our fears, our relationship with God... all of it. Let's write it down so that when God answers our prayers, we will always have a record to look back on to prove that it wasn't just luck or something that we can't remember worrying about. It was truly God, answering our prayers. :)
Alma 38:5
I really love the idea here that the more we put our trust in God, the more he will deliver us. And, of course for all my talk of "ideas" I want to be sure that we are all clear here--this is true. It is real, not hypothetical. The more we trust God, the more he can, and does, help us. It works. :)
I can't even begin to tell you how many times that God has delivered me or solved my problems, but one sort of funny story is when I was living in Saint Louis and I had been in my new apartment for several weeks, but I hadn't finished unpacking. I had a big pile that I still needed to go through, but it wasn't anything I needed immediately, and so I just kept putting it off. I also was really struggling with liking my new place. I mean, the walls were painted green, and the heater was iffy. It would kick on, but it didn't seem to maintain the temperature very well. Stuff like that.
So, anyway, of course I prayed about all of this, explaining to God what I was trying to accomplish and to change in my life and improvements that I was making, but that I probably needed some extra motivation to solve these household things that I kept just blowing off as not a priority. And as I watched over a very short period of time, all my problems were solved... First, my heater stopped working entirely, then my house flooded. (Yes, I know, hilarious in retrospect, and actually sort of funny at the time too. Remind me not to pray for motivation anymore.)
Anyway, for the heater, finally faced with it actually conked completely out, I was motivated. I called the first person on a Google search and they were a couple of blocks away and came over in a couple of hours and my heater was back on and actually working *well.* I was finally warm, and that improved my attitude quite a bit. Then, when the house flooded, I suddenly (stop snickering) had the motivation to sort through everything, because, you know, it was wet, and I needed to take care of it. And then, when they redid the whole place *because* of the flooding, guess what? I got to pick the new paint color. So, God not only solved every one of my "big" problems that I took to him, but he even cared enough to help me get the place painted a nicer color. It wasn't my favorite prayer-answering event when it was happening, but it definitely was an answer, and a deliverance.
I know this principle to be true, but I also know that we can't always take someone else's word, especially with things that are so important. I also know that we each need to develop our own testimonies. So, today, I encourage you to try it, and hey, even if you already know it, let's all try it... it isn't something that we ever stop learning. :) Let's get on our knees and pour out our hearts to God about the things that are on our minds, small or large. Let's go to him with our problems, and then let's do our part in believing in and doing what God asks, and watch God do the rest. God might help us solve a problem in a totally different way than we were expecting, but as we trust him, he *will* deliver us.
As we try the experiment, let's try something else too. Let's write in our journals about it... our hopes, our fears, our relationship with God... all of it. Let's write it down so that when God answers our prayers, we will always have a record to look back on to prove that it wasn't just luck or something that we can't remember worrying about. It was truly God, answering our prayers. :)
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