How Sure the Promise Is!

 

You Can Gather Israel!

By Ahmad S. Corbitt

First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency

Suppose one day before you leave for school, one of your parents makes a true promise that you can have your favorite food when you return home! You are excited! While in school you imagine eating that food, and you can already taste it. Naturally, you share your good news with others. Looking forward to going home makes you so happy that the tests and challenges of school seem light. Nothing can take away your joy or make you doubt because of how sure the promise is! Similarly, before you noble spirits were born, you learned to see Christ’s promises in this sure way, and you tasted of His salvation.¹⁹ Your great faith is like muscles that get stronger and bigger the more you exercise them, but they are already inside you.

Waiting on the Lord Implies Action

 

Hope in Christ

By President M. Russell Ballard

Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

waiting upon the Lord implies continued obedience and spiritual progress toward Him. Waiting upon the Lord does not imply biding one’s time. You should never feel like you are in a waiting room.

Waiting upon the Lord implies action. I have learned over the years that our hope in Christ increases when we serve others. Serving as Jesus served, we naturally increase our hope in Him....

To you stake presidents, bishops, and quorum and sister leaders, I ask you to consider every member of your stake, ward, quorum, or organization as a member who can contribute and serve in callings and participate in many ways.

 

Infuriating Unfairness

By Elder Dale G. Renlund

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

My heart aches for those who face such unfairness, but I declare with all my aching heart that Jesus Christ both understands unfairness and has the power to provide a remedy. Nothing compares to the unfairness He endured. It was not fair that He experienced all the pains and afflictions of mankind. It was not fair that He suffered for my sins and mistakes and for yours. But He chose to do so because of His love for us and for Heavenly Father. He understands perfectly what we are experiencing....

In mortality, we can “come boldly” to the Savior and receive compassion, healing, and help.⁷ Even while we suffer inexplicably, God can bless us in simple, ordinary, and significant ways. As we learn to recognize these blessings, our trust in God will increase. In the eternities, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will resolve all unfairness. We understandably want to know how and when. How are They going to do that? When are They going to do it? To my knowledge, They have not revealed how or when.⁸ What I do know is that They will....

Brothers and sisters, not throwing stones is the first step in treating others with compassion. The second step is to try to catch stones thrown by others....

When faced with unfairness, we can push ourselves away from God or we can be drawn toward Him for help and support....

Do not let unfairness harden you or corrode your faith in God. Instead, ask God for help. Increase your appreciation for and reliance on the Savior. Rather than becoming bitter, let Him help you become better.²⁶ Allow Him to help you persevere, to let your afflictions be “swallowed up in the joy of Christ.”²⁷ Join Him in His mission “to heal the brokenhearted,”²⁸ strive to mitigate unfairness, and become a stonecatcher....

All unfairness—especially infuriating unfairness—will be consecrated for your gain. I

Connection Between Principle and Power

 Such help and hope are dearly needed because in this worldwide congregation today are many who struggle with any number of challenges—physical or emotional, social or financial, or a dozen other kinds of trouble. But many of these we are not strong enough to address in and of ourselves, for the help and peace we need is not the kind “the world giveth.”¹¹ No, for the truly difficult problems we need what the scriptures call “the powers of heaven,” and to access these powers we must live by what these same scriptures call “principles of righteousness.”¹² Now, understanding that connection between principle and power is the one lesson the human family never seems able to learn, so says the God of heaven and earth!¹³

And what are those principles? Well, they are listed repeatedly in scripture, they are taught again and again in conferences like this, and in our dispensation, the Prophet Joseph Smith was taught them in response to his own version of the cry “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”¹⁴ In the cold, uncaring confinement of Liberty Jail, he was taught that the principles of righteousness included such virtues as patience, long-suffering, gentleness, and love unfeigned.¹⁵ Absent those principles, it was certain we would eventually face discord and enmity....

In too many instances, otherwise faithful men, women, and even children can be guilty of speaking unkindly, even destructively, to those to whom they may well be sealed by a holy ordinance in the temple of the Lord. Everyone has the right to be loved, to feel peaceful, and to find safety at home. Please, may we try to maintain that environment there. The promise of being a peacemaker is that you will have the Holy Ghost for your constant companion and blessings will flow to you “without compulsory means” forever.²¹ No one can employ a sharp tongue or unkind words and still “sing the song of redeeming love.”

Not as the World Giveth

By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles