Trust in God, Then Go and Do

(find the talk here)

President Henry B. Eyring’s talk from the Sunday morning session of General Conference was timely for several reasons. The first reason I can think of is because President Boyd K. Packer spoke just after President Eyring’s talk, and President Packer’s talk garnered a lot of criticism among the world, and, ironically, among members of the Church. When a prophet of God speaks, we should trust that he is speaking for the Lord. We have even  been instructed to pray and learn for ourselves that what the prophets say is true. I’ll say more about President Packer’s talk when I read that talk again for this blog (probably tomorrow).

It’s interesting how I end up re-reading the conference talks at exactly the right time for me to hear some counsel that I am particularly needing at that moment. Maybe I didn’t need to hear President Eyring’s counsel to “Trust in God, Then Go and Do” back in October last year, but I surely need it now.

My husband and I are in the process of making a few very significant, very important decisions for our family. About both of which we have recently received individual promptings from the Spirit. However, we, in our “perceived” infinite wisdom (“I know my circumstances, so I know how to proceed in my situation.”) have attempted to postpone, put off, or other wise ignore the promptings we have received. On Sunday afternoon, the Lord sent one of his messengers to help us understand His will for us. President Eyring says that he “trust[s] His apostles and prophets today and those they call to serve God.” (emphasis added) The Lord has called righteous bishops to preside over our wards, and the bishop from our neighborhood ward visited us on Sunday and confirmed our feelings from the past few months. Now the job is ours to decide if we will “go and do.”

The other decision is much more personal and I will not share the details here, but I will mention that both my husband and I feel completely inadequate to go forth with the Lord’s plan in this regard. We both feel that we do not have what it takes, that following what we have felt prompted to do would make our lives more crazy and stressful than we are right now, and that we lack the strength necessary to do the Lord’s will. But President Eyring reminds us of Nephi’s proclamation of trust and obedience:

Nephi … said these words of trust that we can and must feel steadily in our hearts: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

I want to have the kind of faith where I will obey the Lord’s will for me even when I think that I know that there is a better way.  President Eyring says that kind of trust “comes from knowing God.” In my talk yesterday I spoke about President Uchtdorf’s talk Of Things that Matter Most and one of the relationships he mentioned was our relationship with Heavenly Father. President Uchtdorf even taught us how to improve our relationship with our Father. He said:

We improve our relationship with our Heavenly Father by learning of Him,by communing with Him, by repenting of our sins, and by actively following Jesus Christ, for “no man cometh unto the Father, but by[Christ].” To strengthen our relationship with God, we need some meaningful time alone with Him. Quietly focusing on daily personal prayer and scripture study, always aiming to be worthy of a current temple recommend—these will be some wise investments of our time and efforts to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. Let us heed the invitation in Psalms: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

I can learn to trust God by improving my relationship with him and coming to really know God. Studying the scriptures to learn about Him, looking in the world around me to learn about Him, looking into my heart and listening to the Spirit to learn about Him. As I stay close to God, I know that He will make known to me the things he would have me do.

I must trust in the Lord, and then go and do.

I can learn to trust more in the Lord, and I do have a desire to do His will. And as I learn to trust in the Lord, I know that He will be able to trust me, and that He will reveal more and more of His plan for me, as I show Him that I am willing to do His will, trusting that He will prepare a way for it.

President Eyring closed with this remark, and I think it is appropriate for my post as well:

You show your trust in Him when you listen with the intent to learn and repent and then you go and do whatever He asks. If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer in this conference, you will find it. And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow, and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you.

May we learn to have trust in the Lord – and then be willing to go and do what He would have us do. I know that our power to trust Him will grow as we demonstrate that trust to Him.

Have you struggled to trust in the Lord? How do you feel when  you work to find out His will for you, and then go and do the things He has asked for you to do? Do you feel like He prepares a way for you to do all the things He asks you to do?