With the Strength of God

The Savior taught Moroni how to obtain His power in these well-known words: “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27). This is one of the great blessings of the atonement of Jesus Christ that we can have as we humble ourselves before Him: strength. I was reminded of this a few days ago when my son and I rented mountain bikes at a ski resort and biked for several hours. We took the chair lift up and then biked down on the trails, repeating that multiple times. I soon realized that biking downhill like that, constantly going over rocks and around burms and over bumps really works the arm muscles. As the day was coming to an end we looked at the time and realized we might be able to get in three more times down before our bikes had to be turned in at 5:00. If we did that we would reach our goal of biking 30 miles that day, and so we sped up and raced down the mountain. By this time my body was aching all over, and the final two runs down my arms were ready to totally give out and I could barely move my fingers anymore. But I held on to the handlebars somehow, prayed, and kept going, and the Lord gave me the strength to make it to the bottom that last time without crashing. I rolled up exhausted to the bike shop at 4:59 (my son of course was already there waiting for me). Thinking about that experience now I see it as a symbol of how the atonement of Jesus Christ gives us strength. As I kept going and humbly asked for help, I found His strength to go on even through the pain and struggle. In our real challenges in life, usually the Savior does not remove our problems, but rather He gives us additional strength to overcome them. As we then go through the difficulties with His help, we become better and stronger in the process despite our original weakness.

                One story in the Book of Mormon that highlights this principle well is that of Helaman’s army as they fought a much larger Lamanite foe. Helaman prefaced his story that he told to Moroni with these words: “Supposing that God would strengthen us.” The rest of his account showed that God indeed did give them strength. In their first battle, miraculously none of the stripling warriors were killed. Helaman recounted, “They had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites” (Alma 56:8, 56). They went in their weakness as young soldiers, and God gave them strength. Later in the story they were struggling to retain the posssessions they had and barely had enough food to survive. Helaman, waiting for help from the government, wrote that he did not know “the cause why they did not send more strength unto us.” Unable to find strength from man, he and his army turned to the Lord: “Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.” He recorded how the Lord did give them that help: “Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.” They were miraculously able to take the city of Manti, and then he summarized, “We trust in our God who has given us victory over those lands, insomuch that we have obtained those cities and those lands, which were our own. Now we do not know the cause that the government does not grant us more strength; neither do those men who came up unto us know why we have not received greater strength…. But, behold, it mattereth not—we trust God will deliver us, notwithstanding the weakness of our armies, yea, and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies” (Alma 58:9-10, 33-34, 37). We too may be disappointed in help that does not come from places we expect it in our lives, but we can always put our trust in the Lord for strength. As we come unto Him in weakness, hanging on in faith, His promise is that through His grace we will be made strong.