Whosoever Shall Put Their Trust in God

Elder Paul B. Pieper spoke in the most recent general conference about trusting in the Lord. He taught, “In an information-saturated world, there is no shortage of sources promoting their solutions to our challenges. However, the simple, time-tested counsel in Proverbs provides the best advice: ‘Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.’ We show our trust in God by turning to Him first when confronted with life’s challenges.” No matter what the struggle that we face, our first avenue for receiving help and guidance should always be to pray to the Lord and study His word to help us. This was the powerful promise of Alma: “And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 36:3). He will support us through all our trials and troubles as we turn to Him. That means we have confidence in His commandments, in His servants and their counsel, and in His Spirit that can guide us to what is best for ourselves and our families. Google may be able to give us information, but only God can give us the revelation we most need to navigate the challenges we face individually.

                Elder Pieper also said this: “Good teachers and coaches know that intellectual growth and physical strength can happen only when minds and muscles are stretched. Likewise, God invites us to grow by trusting His spiritual tutoring through soul-stretching experiences. Therefore, we can be sure that whatever trust we may have demonstrated in God in the past, another trust-stretching experience lies yet ahead. God is focused on our growth and progress. He is the Master Teacher, the complete coach who is always stretching us to help us realize more of our divine potential. That will always include a future invitation to trust Him just a little bit more.” That is easy to understand in principle, but in practice it is rarely what we want!  Sometimes my children complain to me that something is hard, and I usually tell them, “That is perfect, because you can do hard things!” I don’t usually get a positive reply to that statement, but it is indeed what Paul taught us: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). We have to expect that indeed God will give us hard things in our lives, even yet in the future, but He has promised us that He will help us: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).

                The Savior showed us the perfect example of how to face hard things, even those that we do not want to do. When He went to the Garden of Gethsemane as the hour of His death approached, He prepared to take on Himself the sins of the world. He said to Peter, James, and John: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Matthew recorded that “he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” He did not want to do this very hard thing—the most difficult experience to ever be passed through—and it was okay for Him to say that. It is not a sin to tell the Father, “I do not want to do this,” as long as that statement is followed by what the Savior said, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus soon realized that the Father’s will was indeed for Him to go through with this, and He prayed again, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (Matthew 26:38-42). We each will have our own small bitter cups that we do not want to drink, but as we trust in the Lord and go through with what must be done, we will have His help and even angels to strengthen us: “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43). As we learn to trust the Lord with all our heart, and He will indeed deliver us “out of [our] trials, and [our] troubles, and [our] afflictions, and [we] shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 38:5).