Sometimes we feel that our hard-exercised faith is not yielding the blessings we desperately need. But the Lord is not abandoning us—he’s offering us an opportunity to become divine.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I anxiously waited to hear whether he would receive a job offer for a competitive leadership position. My husband worked hard to be considered for this position, and it felt like God worked a miracle when he was invited for an interview.
While awaiting the outcome, we elevated our faith through a multitude of actions: praying with greater sincerity, reading our scriptures with increased diligence, and being even more involved in our callings. Surely, God would see our faithful efforts and shower blessings upon us.
However, the day arrived, and we received the news that another candidate had been chosen. I shut myself in the bathroom and wondered how this could have happened, feeling abandoned by God. Had God not heard our prayers, seen our actions, or felt our faith in him?
That night, I felt that it didn’t matter if I prayed because my faith wouldn’t make a difference. I immediately felt called to repentance as I remembered what Elder Jeffrey R. Holland teaches in his talk “Waiting on the Lord.” He declares that “faith means trusting God in good times and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf.”
Elder Holland continues by teaching that our potential for divinity lies in how we choose to act during difficult experiences. It was not our diligence before the disappointing outcome that helped us become more like the Savior, but our persistence and love for the Lord after our disappointment. Only after we chose to follow God—regardless of the blessings we would or would not receive—were our hearts revealed. That night, my husband and I chose to continue exercising our faith through our actions because we love God and believe in his power. For us, the outcome no longer mattered; we understood that our faith was in the Lord, not in his blessings.
In the words of Elder Holland, “Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable.” To reach our full, divine potential, we must remember to exercise faith during all phases of life—the joyful and the sorrowful, the hopeful and the hopeless. This is what allows us to become divine.
Learn more about how we can find the strength to have faith amidst our struggles in the general conference talk “Waiting on the Lord” by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
Source: LDS General Conference
—Aundrea Esplin, Latter-day Saint Insights
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Find more insights
Read Yih Chwin Koay’s Liahona article “Faith to Face Uncertainty” to learn more about how to hold on to faith amidst personal trials.
To learn more about how to increase your trust in Christ, read “Faith: A Bond of Trust and Loyalty” by Elder Sandino Roman.
I love the quote by Elder Holland that Aundrea included in her article: “Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable.” It’s so true and it reminds me to keep trying to be better every day.
Agreed! Sometimes we feel uncomfortable at the trial of our faith and when things get tough, but God never leave us.