Sisters, you have all been absolutely heroic! I marvel at your strength and your faith. You have shown that in difficult circumstances, you bravely carry on. I love you, and I assure you that the Lord loves you and sees the great work you are performing. Thank you! Once again, you have proven that you are literally the hope of Israel!
It is in these kinds of encouraging ways that the Lord sees those who seek to follow Him however imperfect they may be.
Admittedly, the Lord has spoken of our day in sobering terms. He warned that in our day “men’s hearts [would fail] them” and that even the very elect would be at risk of being deceived. He told the Prophet Joseph Smith that “peace [would] be taken from the earth” and calamities would befall mankind.
Yet the Lord has also provided a vision of how remarkable this dispensation is. He inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith to declare that “the work of … these last days, is one of vast magnitude. … Its glories are past description, and its grandeur unsurpassable.”
Perspective helps us to see beyond the immediate challenge to the opportunities the challenges present.
If preparation is our key to embracing this dispensation and our future with faith, how can we best prepare?
For decades, the Lord’s prophets have urged us to store food, water, and financial reserves for a time of need. The current pandemic has reinforced the wisdom of that counsel. I urge you to take steps to be temporally prepared. But I am even more concerned about your spiritual and emotional preparation.
In that regard, we can learn a lot from Captain Moroni. As commander of the Nephite armies, he faced opposing forces that were stronger, greater in number, and meaner. So, Moroni prepared his people in three essential ways.
First, he helped them create areas where they would be safe—“places of security” he called them. Second, he prepared “the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord.” And third, he never stopped preparing his people—physically or spiritually. Let us consider these three principles.
Even when the enemy is overwhelming we can outwork the challenges we face of we do so with faith.
Moroni fortified every Nephite city with embankments, forts, and walls. When the Lamanites came against them, they “were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security.”
Similarly, as turmoil rages around us, we need to create places where we are safe, both physically and spiritually. When your home becomes a personal sanctuary of faith—where the Spirit resides—your home becomes the first line of defense.
While our home should be the first line of defense this statement recognizes that sometimes it isn’t – the key is to have a place of security even if our home isn’t one.
We have undertaken a major project to extend the life and capacity of the Salt Lake Temple.
Some questioned the need for taking such extraordinary measures. However, when the Salt Lake Valley suffered a 5.7-magnitude earthquake earlier this year, this venerable temple shook hard enough that the trumpet on the statue of the angel Moroni fell!
Just as the physical foundation of the Salt Lake Temple must be strong enough to withstand natural disasters, our spiritual foundations must be solid. Then, when metaphorical earthquakes rock our lives, we can stand “steadfast and immovable” because of our faith.
The Lord taught us how to increase our faith by seeking “learning, even by study and also by faith.” We strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ as we strive to keep His commandments and “always remember him.” Further, our faith increases every time we exercise our faith in Him. That is what learning by faith means.
I’ve never thought of “learning by faith” in that way.
Even when things went well, Captain Moroni continued to prepare his people. He never stopped. He never became complacent.
The adversary never stops attacking. So, we can never stop preparing! The more self-reliant we are—temporally, emotionally, and spiritually—the more prepared we are to thwart Satan’s relentless assaults.
There are times when the adversary is not engaging in obvious attacks but just as Amalickiah was securing his position among the Lamanites and preparing their minds for war during the four years of apparent peace Satan is still diligently preparing new attacks that we do not yet see. We can prepare defenses against which those attacks falter just as Moroni prepared in ways that the Lamanites were unprepared to counter.
I am not saying that the days ahead will be easy, but I promise you that the future will be glorious for those who are prepared and who continue to prepare to be instruments in the Lord’s hands.
I promise that as we create places of security, prepare our minds to be faithful to God, and never stop preparing, God will bless us. He will “deliver us; yea, insomuch that he [will] speak peace to our souls, and [will] grant unto us great faith, and … cause us that we [can] hope for our deliverance in him.”
It seems more obvious to me than ever that I was only able to withstand the withering attacks of the last several years because of the preparation of many years before that. While it felt like my spiritual defenses were shaking and might crumble, they held because of preparation during years when I could not even conceive of what I would need to withstand.
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