To Let God Prevail

In the most recent general conference, President Nelson invited us to ponder these questions: “Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?” Those are serious questions that we must think deeply about as we consider what is truly in our hearts. To let God prevail means not just that we make place for the Lord in our lives but that we put Him first. We must follow the first great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matt. 22:37).

In the footnote for this paragraph from President Nelson, he added this: “Being of Israel is not for the faint of heart. To receive all the blessings that God has in store for Abraham’s seed, we can each expect to be given our own unique ‘Abrahamic test.’ God will test us, as the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, by wrenching our very heartstrings.” This quote comes from President John Taylor who said this: “I heard the Prophet Joseph say, in speaking to the Twelve on one occasion: ‘You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and (said he) God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God.’” Thus to let God prevail in our lives is not a trivial action or a something we can do half-heartedly. We must be willing to “offer [our] whole souls as an offering unto him” in order to “partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption” (Omni 1:26).

                In his talk President Nelson also said this: “Now, my dear brothers and sisters, it takes both faith and courage to let God prevail. It takes persistent, rigorous spiritual work to repent and to put off the natural man through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It takes consistent, daily effort to develop personal habits to study the gospel, to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and to seek and respond to personal revelation.” This was, I believe, the message of Alma as he taught the poor among the Zoramites: “If ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life…. Ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you” (Alma 32:41, 43). To let God prevail in our lives takes great faith and diligence and patience and long-suffering. We must work at it with perseverance, each day trying to align our wills with His and “nourish the tree” through our spiritual devotion. And no matter what trials life brings, we must say in our hearts, “Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way; Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.”