How can we respond to the limits of our spiritual understanding? (What a fantastic question.)
We may be required to wait upon the Lord in the place between our current understanding and {the next line of revelation}.
We need to recognize that we do not possess any knowledge independently from God.
In order to produce fruit, your trust in the Lord needs to be more powerful and enduring than your trust in your own understanding.
One leading planetary scientist and principal investigator for the New Horizons space mission tasked with exploring Pluto up close had this to say about this experience: “We thought we understood the geography of our solar system. We didn’t. We thought we understood the population of planets in our solar system. And we were wrong.”
What is striking to me about this period of space exploration history are some parallels and key distinctions between the metaphorical pursuit of expanding scientific horizons and the journey that we, as children of God, undertake to seek answers to our spiritual questions. Specifically, how we can respond to the limits of our spiritual understanding and prepare ourselves for the next stage of personal growth—and where we can turn for help.
“The next stage of spiritual growth” is what U experienced between March and June of this year. Now I have to look again and prior for the next “next stage of spiritual growth.”
Asking questions and searching for meaning are a natural and normal part of our mortal experience. At times, not readily having complete answers can bring us to the edge of our understanding, and those limitations can feel frustrating or overwhelming. Wondrously, Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness for all of us is designed to help us progress despite our limitations and accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own, even without a complete knowledge of all things. God’s plan is merciful toward the limitations of our humanity; provides us with our Savior, Jesus Christ, to be our Good Shepherd; and inspires us to use our agency to choose Him
Our personal effort to grow in wisdom may lead us to examine our questions, complex or otherwise, through the lens of cause and effect, seeking out and recognizing patterns and then forming narratives to give shape to our understanding and fill in perceived gaps in knowledge. When we consider our pursuit of spiritual knowledge, however, these thoughtful processes may be helpful at times but on their own can be incomplete as we look to discern things pertaining to Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, Their gospel, Their Church, and Their plan for all of us.
God the Father and His Son’s way of imparting Their wisdom to us prioritizes inviting the power of the Holy Ghost to be our personal teacher as we center Jesus Christ in our lives and in our faithful seeking for Their answers and Their meaning. They invite us to discover truth through devoted time spent studying holy scripture and to seek for latter-day revealed truth for our day and our time, imparted by modern-day prophets and apostles. They entreat us to spend regular, worshipful time in the house of the Lord and to take to our knees in prayer “to access information from heaven.”
The efforts that we put in to examine our questions change us but if we do it without turning to God and His sources we will be unable to come to the truths behind the questions.
The Lord’s method of teaching is “line upon line, precept upon precept.” We may be required to “wait upon the Lord” in the space between our current line of understanding and the next yet to be delivered. This sacred space can be a place where our greatest spiritual conditioning can occur—the site where we can “bear with patience” our earnest seeking and renew our strength to continue to keep the sacred promises we have made to God through covenant.
Waiting may be when our greatest spiritual conditioning occur — that’s an unexpected possibility.
Our covenant relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ signals our prevailing citizenship in God’s kingdom. And our residency therein requires aligning our life to divine principles and putting in the effort to grow spiritually.
Our fidelity to the knowledge and wisdom we have already inherited through our faithful adherence to gospel principles and sacred covenants is crucial preparation for our readiness to receive and be stewards of communications from the Holy Spirit.
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the source of all truth and share Their wisdom liberally. Also, understanding that we do not possess any personal knowledge independent of God can help us know who to turn to and where to place our primary trust.
When we think we know something independent of God we open ourselves up to being trapped by pride.
This life is an experience in profound trust—trust in Jesus Christ, trust in His teachings, trust in our capacity as led by the Holy Spirit to obey those teachings for happiness now and for a purposeful, supremely happy eternal existence. To trust means to obey willingly without knowing the end from the beginning. To produce fruit, your trust in the Lord must be more powerful and enduring than your confidence in your own personal feelings and experience.
Richard G. Scott
To exercise faith is to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing with you and that He can accomplish it for your eternal good even though you cannot understand how He can possibly do it.
Trust in the Lord
October 1995
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