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Working Alongside the Spirit

Taking time to be still (see Psalm 46:10) invites the Spirit to be with us as we face life’s challenges.

One Saturday night during college, I was crying alone in my bedroom. My Church responsibility was to oversee our Relief Society teachers, and because of a last-minute miscommunication with my bishopric, no one was scheduled to teach Sunday’s lesson. I was a mess. I had no teacher and felt that any lesson I threw together would be a disaster.

After I calmed down and stopped crying, a thought popped into my mind: “Are you done?”

“Yes,” I replied.

"Stillness is pausing with a purpose." —Troy W. Carlton
PHOTO BY SUPRITHA JONNAVITULLA

Another thought came: “Then let’s get to work.”

I understood then what Troy W. Carlton says in his BYU devotional “Listen to Find the Sweet Assurances of the Spirit,” that the Holy Ghost isn’t someone who only gives advice from a distance; he is a living member of the Godhead who works alongside us each day.

To hear the Spirit, I needed, as Carlton says, “to be still and listen.” It was after my panic subsided that the Spirit could testify that I was not forgotten. 

“Stillness does not mean idleness,” Carlton continues. “Stillness is pausing with a purpose.” When the Lord tells us to “be still, and know that [he is] God,” (Psalm 46:10) he wants us to recognize his promise that if we are following him, we will have his Spirit.

One less-than-stellar Relief Society lesson wasn’t going to drastically affect my life. But the Spirit used that moment to remind me that when I am ready to learn, he will teach, and when I am ready to work, he will be there beside me.

For more ways to invite the promptings of the Holy Ghost into our daily lives, read or listen to Troy W. Carlton’s full address “Listen to Find the Sweet Assurances of the Spirit.”

Source: BYU Speeches

—Rachel Peterson, Latter-day Saint Insights

FEATURE IMAGE BY BEN WHITE

Find more insights 

Read Sara McOmber’s article “Strength in Spiritual Sensitivity: What to Do When You Feel Spiritually Numb” for three questions to ask when you feel spiritually distant from Heavenly Father.

To learn more about recognizing the voice of the Holy Ghost, check out the article “Was That the Spirit?” by Elizabeth Gallacher.

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