A Prayer of Faith

At the October 2006 General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke on Sunday afternoon. What struck me so much about his talk, “Prophets in the Land Again,” and still strikes me now as I read it and hear his voice in my mind, was the passion in his voice for his topic. It touched my heart.

What did he speak about? General Conference and what it means to us—or can mean, if we will let it. He spoke of “three things these twice-yearly gatherings declare to all the world.” He continued:

First, they declare eagerly and unequivocally that there is again a living prophet on the earth speaking in the name of the Lord. And how we need such guidance! Our times are turbulent and difficult. We see wars internationally and distress domestically. Neighbors all around us face personal heartaches and family sorrows. Legions know fear and troubles of a hundred kinds. This reminds us that when those mists of darkness enveloped the travelers in Lehi’s vision of the tree of life, it enveloped all of the participants—the righteous as well as the unrighteous, the young along with the elderly, the new convert and seasoned member alike. In that allegory all face opposition and travail, and only the rod of iron—the declared word of God—can bring them safely through. We all need that rod. We all need that word. No one is safe without it, for in its absence any can “[fall] away into forbidden paths and [be] lost,” as the record says.

Elder Holland is right, of course. We all face troubles and trials and heartaches of all kinds. We worry. We feel afraid. We feel alone. To hear the word of God in conference can bring comfort and solace, as well as instruction and healing. We are reminded that we are not alone, never alone. Our Heavenly Father loves us and is vitally interested in each one of us and how we are doing. He has sent prophets and apostles to speak to us and remind us that He is our loving, caring, interested Heavenly Father. He figuratively puts His arms around each of us and gives us an embrace of comfort and reassurance. The Lord speaks guidance and instruction to us through His prophets. We are reminded of what we can and should be doing and what the purpose of life, our life, is.

Elder Holland also says:

As the least of those who have been sustained by you to witness the guidance of this Church firsthand, I say with all the fervor of my soul that never in my personal or professional life have I ever associated with any group who are so in touch, who know so profoundly the issues facing us, who look so deeply into the old, stay so open to the new, and weigh so carefully, thoughtfully, and prayerfully everything in between. I testify that the grasp this body of men and women have of moral and societal issues exceeds that of any think tank or brain trust of comparable endeavor of which I know anywhere on the earth. I bear personal witness of how thoroughly good they are, of how hard they work, and how humbly they live. It is no trivial matter for this Church to declare to the world prophecy, seership, and revelation, but we do declare it. It is true light shining in a dark world, and it shines from these proceedings.

There are those who worry that the prophets and apostles are out-of-touch with the world and the times, and it is comforting and strengthening to know that one who works among them day in and day out can testify so strongly that they “are so in touch, who know so profoundly the issues facing us.” We may have our questions and our wonderings, but we must know that these leaders, who speak for the Lord, know what they are about.

Elder Holland continues by saying, ” Secondly, each of these conferences marks a call to action not only in our own lives but also on behalf of others around us, those who are of our own family and faith and those who are not.” He goes on to remind us of the handcart pioneers and their rescue, then says:

As surely as the rescue of those in need was the general conference theme of October 1856, so too is it the theme of this conference and last conference and the one to come next spring. It may not be blizzards and frozen-earth burials that we face this conference, but the needy are still out there—the poor and the weary, the discouraged and downhearted, those “[falling] away into [the] forbidden paths” we mentioned earlier, and multitudes who are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.”

He then reminds us that there are people everywhere who need someone to help them–someone to show them the way, to encourage them, to help them with their needs, whether they are physical/temporal, mental, emotional, or spiritual. We should all work at being more aware of those around us who need something and then do our best to provide that help. As Elder Holland said, “In doing so we honor the Master’s repeated plea on behalf of lost sheep and lost coins and lost souls.”

The third thing that Elder Holland says that General Conferences declares is, “Lastly, a general conference of the Church is a declaration to all the world that Jesus is the Christ, that He and His Father, the God and Father of us all, appeared to the boy prophet Joseph Smith in fulfillment of that ancient promise that the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth would again restore His Church on earth and again ‘come in like manner as [those Judean Saints had] seen him [ascend] into heaven.’ ”

In a touching and heartfelt plea, Elder Holland then states:

To all of you who think you are lost or without hope, or who think you have done too much that was too wrong for too long, to every one of you who worry that you are stranded somewhere on the wintry plains of life and have wrecked your handcart in the process, this conference calls out Jehovah’s unrelenting refrain, “[My] hand is stretched out still.” “I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them,” He said, “[and even if they] deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, … if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts.” His mercy endureth forever, and His hand is stretched out still. His is the pure love of Christ, the charity that never faileth, that compassion which endures even when all other strength disappears.

No one need remain lost forever. No one need live without hope. If we are “stranded somewhere on the wintry plains of life,” we can know that the Lord’s “hand is stretched out still.” Often, that stretched out hand belongs to one of us who answers the prompting from the Holy Spirit to seek out and help someone. And sometimes we are the one being sought and helped. But always, always the Lord is there behind it all–loving, caring, inspiring, comforting, strengthening, guiding.

We can find those things in our daily prayers and scripture study, but at General Conference time, we can hear the words of the Lord through His prophets and apostles and get that extra assurance that God is present here and now and this is what He would have us do and be.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 4:25 pm and is filed under True and Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.