Stand as Witnesses For Me Hereafter

As Jesus hung on the cross near the point of death He “cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) At this moment the Father had withdrawn His Spirit from the Son as part of the final triumph over sin and death for the Savior. Elder Holland commented on this scene: “That the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.” What impressed me today as I thought about this moment for the Savior was that His expression of anguish was also an expression of faith, for the Savior was quoting scripture. In that moment of utter despair, He chose to turn to the sacred word as He had done throughout His life and quoted from Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” In this moment when He felt abandoned, when the presence of the Father could no longer be felt, when He had nowhere to turn, He quoted the words of holy writ. There is surely a lesson in this for us—even in our anguish and sorrow, even when we feel that the Spirit has left us and that we are alone, we should turn to the words of the scripture and find strength there. And we should have studied them such that the sacred phrases will be readily available in our minds at that point, just as they were for Jesus as He hung on the cross. They gave Him the strength to endure that final moment until He gave up the ghost, and they can likewise give us the strength we need in all our difficult moments.

                 I have learned that there is indeed great power in memorizing the scriptures and trying to turn to those often in our minds as the Savior did at that moment and in so many others during His mortal ministry. I recently participated with my family in a 5K run called F2TF (Fight to the Finish) in behalf of many people who have died or who are struggling with serious illness. We have been involved in this for many years now and my wife helped put together two teams for friends of ours who have lost loved ones. The event is a place for people mourning and suffering to come together and be strengthened with hundreds of people banding together. After all the work that had gone into preparing for this, we were concerned that the forecast showed heavy rain for the morning of the race. The night before the prediction was 70% chance of rain all throughout that morning. Knowing that this would put a serious damper on all of these events meant to lift so many struggling people, my wife prayed earnestly that the rain would be stopped. By the next morning the forecast had indeed changed and rain wasn’t expected until after the event. As one of the organizers got up and spoke we could see the storm clouds in the distance but it was dry for us. I was impressed by the testimony she bore, thanking her God that He had stayed the rain and acknowledging in front of everyone that He had answered her prayers that day. As she spoke, this verse of scripture immediately came to mind which I had previously memorized: “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14). She knew that the Lord had heard her cries, and she was fulfilling her responsibility in standing as a witness for Him that day. It was a powerful moment for me as I learned what it meant to fulfill the injunction of that scripture and felt the Spirit confirm its importance for me. But I would not have had that experience if I hadn’t committed those words to memory.  

I am grateful for the words of the Lord that we have in the scriptures to bring us strength. At one point in my life I fought off darkness and despair for quite some time, and I struggled to overcome it fully. I finally realized that I needed to work on memorizing scriptures every day, and only then did I find the peace I sought. There is great power in His word committed to our hearts to dispel darkness. I know that it was through His word that the Lord eased my burdens. In all the struggles that we face His words should be our first line of defense even if for a time, like the Savior, we feel we have lost His Spirit’s sustaining influence.