What is the difference between a doubter and a seeker? The answer is all in the wrestle.
photo by abigail keenan
The world today seems to draw questions out of dark corners, blurring the lines of morality and casting shadows on the light of faith. When these questions arise, many people may feel uncertain about their beliefs. Sheri Dew encourages these people in her BYU–Idaho address “Will You Engage in the Wrestle?”
Sister Dew differentiates between doubters and seekers: while doubting involves rejecting truth and faith, seeking involves engaging in a spiritual wrestle so the Lord can teach us spiritual truths. She explains that in the sport of wrestling, the champion wrestler knows how to leverage his strength to overpower his opponent. In spiritual wrestling, we leverage “the strength of true doctrine to overpower our weaknesses, our wavering faith, and our lack of knowledge.”
To be a seeker, we must learn spiritual wrestling skills:
- Engage in the wrestle.
- Immerse ourselves regularly in the scriptures.
- Work to be increasingly pure in thoughts, words, and actions.
- Listen for the Lord’s instruction.
As we become seekers and strengthen our faith, the Lord will individually assist us in finding answers to our gospel questions. The spiritual wrestle requires constant effort, but the payoff—personalized revelation—is worth the exertion.
Read or watch Sherri Dew’s “Will You Engage in the Wrestle?” to learn how you can leverage the Lord’s power and be personally tutored by the Holy Ghost.
Source: BYU–Idaho Speeches
—Morgan Lewis, Mormon Insights
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Find more insights
To learn more about maintaining your faith, read or watch Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s general conference address entitled “Lord, I Believe.”
On the Mormon Channel, Elder Hugh B. Brown gives advice for dealing with questions and doubts in “Dealing with a Crisis of Faith.”
Watch a video depiction of John 20:24–29, when Christ appears to the skeptical Thomas: “Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen, and Yet Have Believed.”
Read another Mormon Insights article about responding to tough answers that we may receive when we ask spiritual questions. See “Asking Hard Questions in the Gospel” by Mark T. Hales.
Thank you for this article! Wrestle is a good way to describe trying to find answers, not because you are fighting God, but because you have to push HARD to beat preconceived ideas, doubts, and weaknesses. The answers do come though, and you come out the other end that much stronger.
I think another difference between doubters and seekers is where and how they look for answers. Seekers go to the source and look for reasons to believe.