The Power of Sustaining Faith

At first, sustaining is a simple act but many of you have moved on to a place where sustaining is more involved.

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. E

One again, a great talk is blown away by stupidity at home.

Many times I have heard priesthood leaders give thanks for the sustaining faith of those they serve. From the emotion in their voices, you know their gratitude is deep and real. My purpose today is to convey the Lord’s appreciation for your sustaining His servants in His Church. And it is also to encourage you to exercise and grow in that power to sustain others with your faith.

When I was young those thanks sounded like platitudes but I have come to recognize their sincerity.

The fact that you are in mortality now assures us that you sustained the Father and the Savior. It took faith in Jesus Christ to sustain the plan of happiness and Jesus Christ’s place in it when you knew so little of the challenges that you would face in mortality.

If we didn’t have some idea of the challenges we would face nobody would have been able to start a rebellion.

You may have been asked, or you will be, whether you sustain your bishop, stake president, the General Authorities, and the General Officers of the Church. It may happen as you are asked to sustain officers and leaders in a conference. Sometimes it will be in an interview with a bishop or stake president.

My counsel is that you ask those questions of yourself beforehand, with careful and prayerful thought. As you do, you might look back on your recent thoughts, words, and deeds. Try to remember and frame the answers you will give when the Lord interviews you, knowing that someday He will. You could prepare by asking yourself questions like the following:

1. Have I thought or spoken of human weakness in the people I have pledged to sustain?
2. Have I looked for evidence that the Lord is leading them?
3. Have I conscientiously and loyally followed their leadership?
4. Have I spoken about the evidence I can see that they are God’s servants?
5. Do I pray for them regularly by name and with feelings of love?

Those questions will, for most of us, lead to some uneasiness and a need to repent. We are commanded by God not to judge others unrighteously, but in practice, we find that hard to avoid. Almost everything we do in working with people leads us to evaluate them. And in almost every aspect of our lives, we compare ourselves with others. We may do so for many reasons, some of them reasonable, but it often leads us to be critical.

The ideal answers are: no; yes; yes; yes; yes.

President George Q. Cannon gave a warning that I pass on to you as my own. I believe he spoke the truth: “God has chosen His servants. He claims it as His prerogative to condemn them, if they need condemnation. He has not given it to us individually to censure and condemn them. No man, however strong he may be in the faith, however high in the Priesthood, can speak evil of the Lord’s anointed and find fault with God’s authority on the earth without incurring His displeasure. The Holy Spirit will withdraw himself from such a man, and he will go into darkness. This being the case, do you not see how important it is that we should be careful?”

Here are four suggestions I make for us to act on at this conference.

1. We could identify specific actions the speakers recommend and start today to carry them out. As we do, our power to sustain them will increase.
2. We could pray for them as they speak that the Holy Ghost will carry their words into the hearts of specific people we love. When we learn later that our prayer was answered, our power to sustain those leaders will increase.
3. We could pray that specific speakers will be blessed and magnified as they give their messages. When we see that they were magnified, we will grow in our faith to sustain them, and it will endure.
4. We could listen for messages from the speakers that come as an answer to our personal prayers for help. When the answers come, and they will, we will grow in our faith to sustain all the Lord’s servants.

In addition to improving in sustaining those who serve in the Church, we will learn that there is another setting in which we can increase in such power. There, it can bring even greater blessings to us. It is in the home and family.

Let me tell you from my own experience what it means for a father to feel your sustaining faith. He may look confident to you. But he faces more challenges than you know. At times he can’t see the way through the problems before him.

Your admiration for him will help him some. Your love for him will help even more. But the thing that will help the most is sincere words like these: “Dad, I’ve prayed for you, and I have felt that the Lord is going to help you. Everything will work out. I know it will.”

Words such as those also have power in the other direction, father to son. When a son has made a serious mistake, perhaps in a spiritual matter, he may feel that he has failed. As his father, in that moment, you may be surprised when, after you pray to know what to do, the Holy Ghost puts these words into your mouth: “Son, I’m with you all the way. The Lord loves you. With His help, you can make it back. I know that you can and that you will. I love you.”

In the priesthood quorum and in the family, increased faith to sustain each other is the way we build the Zion the Lord wants us to create. With His help, we can and we will. It will take learning to love the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength and to love each other as we love ourselves.

This applies not only parent to child and child to parent but sibling to sibling and spouse to spouse. This is the celestial level of making home a place where each member feels welcome and valued.