I didn’t realize that Elder Holland had a medical emergency 48 hours after his wife, Patricia, was buried.
I received an adminition to return to my ministry with more urgency and more consecration.
I can’t imagine elder Holland having more consecration than before. I CAN imagine Elder Holland wanting to be done in the face of a major medical challenge after Sister Holland was gone.
Prayers are heard and answered according to the path that Father in Heaven has for our perfection, even when they are not answered in the way we hope.
This is a reminder of what I have already been feeling—to improve and increase my efforts at prayer.
When we don’t know how to pray or what to pray for we should begin praying and continue until the Holy Ghost guides us into what to pray for. This may be especially necessary when praying for our enemies.
I don’t think Elder Holland particularly expects to make it to another conference.
Virtually all my experience in the hospital during that first period is lost to my memory. What is not lost is my memory of a journey outside the hospital, out to what seemed the edge of eternity. I cannot speak fully of that experience here, but I can say that part of what I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word.
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My beloved sisters and brothers, since that experience, I have tried to take up my cross more earnestly, with more resolve to find where I can raise an apostolic voice of both warmth and warning in the morning, during the day, and into the night.
Brothers and sisters, I testify that God hears every prayer we offer and responds to each of them according to the path He has outlined for our perfection. I recognize that at roughly the same time so many were praying for the restoration of my health, an equal number—including me—were praying for the restoration of my wife’s health. I testify that both of those prayers were heard and answered by a divinely compassionate Heavenly Father, even if the prayers for Pat were not answered the way I asked. It is for reasons known only to God why prayers are answered differently than we hope—but I promise you they are heard and they are answered according to His unfailing love and cosmic timetable.
If we “ask not amiss,” there are no limits to when, where, or about what we should pray.
The key to understanding this is to have faith in the reality of “His unfailing love.” That is actually exactly why Bex can’t currently reconcile with God.
Our prayers ought to be vocal when we have the privacy to so offer them. If that is not practical, they should be carried as silent utterances in our heart. …
…We should pray individually, in our families, and in congregations of all sizes. We are to employ prayer as a shield against temptation, and if there be any time we feel not to pray, we can be sure that hesitancy does not come from God, who yearns to communicate with His children at any and all times. Indeed, some efforts to keep us from praying come directly from the adversary. When we don’t know how or exactly for what to pray, we should begin, and continue, until the Holy Spirit guides us into the prayer we should be offering. This approach may be the one we have to invoke when praying for our enemies and those who despitefully use us.
This is a testament to the need that I have at present to devote much more time to prayer—so that I can be guided into the prayers I should be offering.
Against that backdrop of Christ’s victory over death and His recent gift to me of a few more weeks or months in mortality, I bear solemn witness of the reality of eternal life and the need for us to be serious in our planning for it.
I bear witness that when Christ comes, He needs to recognize us—not as nominal members listed on a faded baptismal record but as thoroughly committed, faithfully believing, covenant-keeping disciples. This is an urgent matter for all of us, lest we ever hear with devastating regret: “I never knew you,” or, as Joseph Smith translated that phrase, “[You] never knew me.”
I can tell that I had gotten complacent in planning for eternity. While I still believed in the covenants I had made I have spent much time leaving them on the backburner while I felt like I was at the mercy of the choices of others and the circumstances of my life.
We need to believe in angels and miracles and the promises of the holy priesthood. We need to believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost, the influence of good families and friends, and the power of the pure love of Christ. We need to believe in revelation and prophets, seers, and revelators … We need to believe that with prayer and pleading and personal righteousness, we really can ascend to “Mount Zion, … the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.” (Doctrine & Covenants 76:66)
Unless someone believes in angels, miracles, and the promises of the priesthood they will find it very challenging if they are confronted with prayers that are not answered anything like they hope.
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