Adversity (from a talk I gave a couple of years ago)

Elder Ronald J. Hammond spoke at a BYU-I devotional a few years ago. He spoke of acquiring a first-person faith in God, meaning we know that God will bless us because we have had first hand experiences with His love. He says: The scriptures are filled with experiences wherein prophets and disciples struggled to develop first-person faith in God in the face of stifling unknowns. How much easier it would have been had they known, while in the furnace, how things would eventually turn out.

"For example, look with me down the long corridor of time. We see Father Abraham preparing, as God had commanded, to sacrifice his only begotten son, Isaac – hot tears matching the heat of the fiery trial. Then, as he raises the sacrificial dagger, you and I call to him down through the millennia, "Abraham, O Abraham, don’t worry. It’s all going to be just fine! See, I have the book! I know how this story ends! Abraham, hang in there, don’t give up!" But Abraham, in the thick of developing first-person faith cannot, must not, hear us. It must be just Abraham and God. Then, after the fiery trial of his faith, the miracle occurs, we sigh with relief, and Abraham becomes not only the father of millions, but the father of the faithful as well.

"And what about those 2000 Lamanite youth under Helaman’s command –youth near the age of many of you? The most powerful army of the Lamanites pursues them for a couple of days then silence. And then the terrible questions must be answered, questions like: "Do we turn back to help Antipus? And, is it an ambush? And, could you show me again how to hold a cimeter?" Back they go, this little band that never before has fought an enemy. And we call down the corridor of time, "Hello! You are going to win and not one of you will be killed! Here, read Alma chapters 56 through 58. We love you! Thanks for your examples. Remember, your team wins!" But, again, they cannot, must not, hear us. It must be each youth and his God. Only after the trial of their first-person faith was it written, "And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe."

Here is a quote by President Harold B. Lee, "There is so much work to do. This people is just beginning to be tested. When you are a golden nugget, prepare for the refiner’s fire!"

One more quote by Elaine Cannon said:  "There are terrible troubles among the Saints. Bizarre things are happening. Hearts are being broken. Testimonies are being tried. Dreams are being dashed. Pressures of all kinds and temptations that were never imagined are all directed at God’s choice children. But in D&C 106:5 we learn a critical key: ‘Therefore, gird up your loins, that you may be the children of light.’"

Seems a bit depressing to end here.  More on this later. Be happy!  His promises are sure!  (Camille says I'm being too serious.)