"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."
(President Dieter Uchtdorf)
Consider the following quotes. How accurately do they describe the time we currently live in? Take particular note of the individual who is speaking and when the quote was given. (Clicking on the reference at the end of the quote will take you to the full article.)
Today there are many issues under debate as controversies rage all around us. It should be evident to all that we need divine direction, as men and women who argue their causes seem to be unable to come to workable or peaceable solutions. It is sad indeed that the world does not know or accept the fact that in our midst is a prophet through whom God can direct the solution of world problems.
I stress that I come neither as an alarmist nor as a pessimist, but as one who seeks in his gentle way to remind us of this reality lest we be struck “with wonder and astonishment” and become dismayed and dislocated by difficulties that emerge when “all hell is moved,” because the restored kingdom is really rolling now. We may never become accustomed to untrue and unjust criticism of us but we ought not to be immobilized by it. Neither should we be surprised at the proximity of such protagonists and the falsity and the fury of their pronouncements. President Joseph F. Smith said, “there are those—and they abound largely in our midst—who will shut their eyes to every virtue and to every good thing connected with this latter-day work, and will proud out floods of falsehood and misrepresentation against the people of God.” President Smith, who endured so much of that proximate persecution, did what we must also do. He said of such detract , “I forgive them for this. I leave them in the hands of the just Judge” (Gospel Doctrine, p. 337).
President Cannon, who knew that the adversary regards this telestial turf as his own, said that Satan will vigorously resist all rezoning efforts because this is his world. President Cannon further observed that the Saints—meaning you and I—must not make the mistake of assuming the existence of any truce between the forces of Satan and God. To believe so, said President Cannon, is “a very great delusion, and a very common one.”
President Cannon then warned that the forms of resistance to righteousness will strike us “with wonder and astonishment.” This, he said, would occur because “the war” which was waged in heaven has been transferred to the earth,” and that this conflict, he said, “will [come to] occupy the thoughts and minds of all the inhabitants of the earth” (Journal of Discourses 11:227–29). Brothers and sisters, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be at the epicenter of all that.
President Cannon, May 1866 [from Elder Maxwell's talk]
President Cannon, May 1866 [from Elder Maxwell's talk]
What do these quotes teach us about the Gospel?
They help to validate, sustain, and verify that these are prophets, seers, and revelators.
What do you learn from them?
What about today's events, issues, challenges?
We have prophets, seers, revelators
What are they currently saying?
Do we believe that they are prophets, seers, and revelators?
What if we still have questions? Where do we find answers?
- Desire to believe
- Scriptures/prophets :: what scriptures tell us to ask?
Mormon 9:21
James 1:5
- Do the will of God
- Prayer
- Ponder
- Fasting
- Trusted Friends
- Be obedient
- Counsel with those with priesthood keys (bishop, stake president, quorum president)
- Delegated authority with keys (auxiliary presidents)
Not…
The Internet
Social media
Must be careful in social media, doubts/questions are natural and normal, where and how we express them can impact others … greatly
Mormon 9:27
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.
(Another excellent resource regarding this topic is Elder Ballard's talk "God Is At the Helm" from the October 2015 General Conference. Click HERE for the link.)
