{"id":15815,"date":"2018-06-12T12:23:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T18:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?post_type=speech&p=15815"},"modified":"2024-03-07T10:42:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T17:42:07","slug":"the-faith-to-do-his-will","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/beth-luthy\/the-faith-to-do-his-will\/","title":{"rendered":"The Faith to Do His Will"},"content":{"rendered":"
I\u2009would like for us to go on a journey together. The journey I am going to ask you to take, however, won\u2019t be a vacation. In fact, it will likely be a little painful. You see, for you to go on this journey, I need you to reflect upon a moment in your life when you were surviving a trial\u2014a painful, discouraging trial wherein you experienced intense suffering. I need you to go back to how you felt in the midst of the darkness, the loneliness, and the anger, back to the moment when you felt you could no longer endure the heartache. It is this state of suffering that I would like to focus on today.<\/p>\n
Our mortal life can be compared to a long journey. Sometimes the journey is easy for a time: the path is smooth, the warmth of the sun is comforting, and the light breeze is refreshing. Other times\u2014what seems to be most of the time\u2014the journey is difficult: the terrain is steep, treacherous, and fraught with all manner of obstacles, some of which cause us to trip or stumble on our way. And sometimes the journey requires us to shoulder much more of a burden than we think we can carry. It is during these turbulent and troubling times of life that the journey compels us to descend into a dangerously deep valley\u2014so deep that we are surrounded by numbing cold temperatures, so deep that it seems like we are descending into a bottomless chasm, so deep, in fact, that the unmitigated darkness causes us to question whether or not the sun still exists.<\/p>\n
It is under these inhospitable conditions that I reverently contemplate Jesus willingly entering the Garden of Gethsemane to suffer for the sins of all mankind. It is difficult to imagine how He felt at that exact moment. We know from Matthew 26<\/a> that the Savior earnestly prayed, asking the Father three times if there were another way to accomplish His purpose. Verse 39 reads:<\/p>\n And 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.<\/i><\/p>\n The Savior pleaded again in verse 42, saying:<\/p>\n O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.<\/i><\/p>\n In verse 44 the Savior prayed again a third time, \u201csaying the same words.\u201d<\/p>\n Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:<\/p>\n The Lord said, in effect, \u201cIf there is another path, I would rather walk it. If there is any other way .<\/i> . . I will gladly embrace it.\u201d .<\/i> . . But in the end, the cup did not pass.<\/i>1<\/sup><\/p>\n \u201cI stand all amazed<\/i>\u201d2<\/sup> <\/i>at the Lord\u2019s response as recorded in Luke 22:42<\/a>: \u201cNevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.\u201d This means Jesus willingly submitted to the will of the Father in order to fulfill the need for an Atonement. Jesus, in perhaps the greatest example of humility and faith, submitted to the Father\u2019s will, even though it meant He would suffer unimaginable grief and incomprehensible sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane.<\/p>\n How can we have the faith and the strength to follow the Savior\u2019s example, willingly submitting to our Father\u2019s will even when we are in the throes of despair?<\/p>\n First and foremost, I think we need to have a better understanding of the purpose of suffering. While no one escapes this life or journey without suffering, we are still conditioned as humans to avoid trials and adversity at all costs. Nevertheless, the amount of suffering in the world is all around. A quick check of the headlines confirms what I am talking about: poverty, addiction, illness, violence, abuse, corruption\u2014the list seems to go on and on. Why? you may ask. Why does our Heavenly Father allow such horrifying events to happen to His cherished children? Why does He allow <\/i>us to suffer?<\/p>\n In his book Why Is This Happening to Me?<\/i> the Reverend Wayne Monbleau explained that one of the reasons God allows tribulation is to transform us into wounded healers. He wrote:<\/p>\n A wounded healer is someone who has suffered; but instead of being self-centered, the wounded healer sees suffering in an \u201cother\u201d-centered context .<\/i> . . with holy compassion and mercy for others.<\/i>3<\/sup><\/p>\n In other words, when we suffer, there is something deep within our soul that changes, breaks, and then softens. We learn, firsthand, lessons about pain, anguish, misery, and torment, and then, because we know what it feels like to be wounded, we have compassion for others who are suffering and we can help to heal them. Essentially, our loving Heavenly Father uses times of suffering to transform us into an instrument in His hands\u2014an instrument that, armed with a newly developed nobility of spirit, is compelled to help relieve the suffering of His children.<\/p>\n Think about it. Let us suppose for a moment that you have never experienced suffering. Maybe you have read about suffering; maybe you have even studied it. But until you have survived the kind of heart-wrenching suffering that shakes you to your very core, how in the world could you ever develop compassion toward another human being? You couldn\u2019t. I find it interesting that the word compassion<\/i> comes from two Latin words: cum<\/i> and passio.<\/i> Cum<\/i> means \u201cwith\u201d or \u201ctogether,\u201d and passio <\/i>means \u201cto suffer.\u201d Compassion,<\/i> then, literally means \u201cto suffer with.\u201d<\/p>\n An Austrian poet once wrote, \u201cWhat is to give light must [first] endure burning.\u201d4<\/sup> These words summon the familiar imagery of the refiner\u2019s fire, where the fire (or the trials of life) reshapes us into someone better and stronger than we could have possibly imagined. Ask yourself how Heavenly Father has used trials in your life to reshape you into a better, 2.0 version of yourself. Sometimes we think we know, because of our best-laid plans, what our final destination will be. Our Heavenly Father, however, may have a very different plan\u2014a different final destination\u2014where, in the end, we learn to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n However, successfully reaching the destination Heavenly Father has in store and becoming more like the Savior is not a pain-free journey. In essence, there is a price that must be paid in order to become intimately acquainted with our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n William R. Palmer once shared an experience of one who had traveled in the Martin handcart company:<\/p>\n In an adult Sunday School class, .<\/i> .<\/i> . some sharp criticism of the Church and its leaders was being indulged in for permitting a company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart caravan afforded. .<\/i> . .<\/p>\n An old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it then he arose and said things that few of those who heard him will ever forget. .<\/i> . .<\/p>\n He said in substance, \u201cI ask you to stop this criticism for you are discussing a matter you know nothing about. .<\/i> . . Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it. .<\/i> . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation. But did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? .<\/i> . .<\/p>\n \u201cWas I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor one moment of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come to Zion in the Martin Handcart Company.\u201d<\/i>5<\/sup><\/p>\n This idea may seem a little messy from our limited and earthly perspective, but Heavenly Father knows exactly<\/i> how to guide us to a better destination. Our Heavenly Father is omnipotent (meaning He is all powerful), omniscient (meaning He is all knowing), and omnipresent (meaning He is always present); He knows what He is doing.<\/p>\n Author Max Lucado has a great little saying that he shares when he encounters those who are suffering. He says to them:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll get through this. It won\u2019t be painless. It won\u2019t be quick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime don\u2019t be foolish or naive. But don\u2019t despair either. With God\u2019s help you will get through this.<\/i>6<\/sup><\/p>\n Do you have faith that your Heavenly Father knows you so well that He knows under what circumstances you will emerge as a stronger, albeit wounded, healer so that you will become a valuable instrument in His hands, able to do His work and comfort His children? Do you believe that God is good? And is it possible that God is still <\/i>good even when things go, well, badly?<\/p>\n The answer is a resounding yes!<\/i> Reverend Monbleau explained that when things are going well and we are enjoying the magnificent view from the top of a mountain, we have more perspective, and we understand that the long and maybe dangerous climb up the trail to the top was all worth it. The problem is, no one can stay on the top of the mountain for long; eventually all of us must walk down off the mountain and into a deep valley. We have all been there\u2014or will <\/i>all be <\/i>there. During those painful times\u2014the times we spend deep in the valley\u2014remember the promise in Psalm 104:10<\/a>, which reads, \u201cHe sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.\u201d Think about it: the life-sustaining water is not<\/i> found on the mountaintop; it is found in the valley.7<\/sup><\/p>\nThe Purpose of Suffering<\/b><\/h2>\n
Trust in God and Fear Not<\/b><\/h2>\n