A good friend of mine told me yesterday that God does not put negative feelings in you. That is Satan, God only gives good. When the Pharisees and scribes brought the woman who committed adultery before the Savior, he didn’t make her feel awful for her sin did He? That is not His way. His way is love. The scripture says, “and said [He] unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her… When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:7-11). The scribes and Pharisees like the adversary wanted “the sinner” to feel worthless for her sin. Jesus Christ provided hope. He showed to them and all of us, that all of us sin. No one can cast a stone because everyone is with sin. You may think, your sin is so great that it’s different for you, but if you feel that way I encourage you to study the life of Saul turned to Paul, or Alma the Younger. If people who have committed such sins against God as them can be forgiven and changed, anyone can.
I have always been someone with pretty strong faith, but Satan has really been working on me to make me think that God must not love me since He is not answering my prayers. I speak with God all the time, and yes it’s true I sometimes weaken because I don’t know why He hasn’t given me what I most want when I have and am doing all I can to keep his commandments. I know God just weeps when we have thoughts like this. He yearns for us to see things as He does. He yearns for us to trust Him. I searched “ask” in the scriptures and found that it appeared in more than 420 different locations. I realized then that Heavenly Father would not include that so many times if He really wasn’t intending on giving us what we ask for. In Matt 7 the Savior says that when we ask for bread the Lord will not give a stone, or if we ask for a fish we will not be given a serpent. There is an excellent talk by S Michael Wilcox called “Bread or Stones: understanding the God we pray to” in which he elaborates on this idea. He says that,
“What we must understand about our Father in Heaven is that He only gives bread; He never gives stones. He only gives fish; He never gives serpents. He only gives eggs; He never gives scorpions.” He continues,“A stone, when you want bread, is something useless. God does not give useless things. He did not give me a serpent; a serpent, when you want a fish, is something harmful. He does not give harmful things; He only gives bread, and fish, and eggs.”
God only gives good things. Trust in Him. Trust in His plan. Maybe the bread for you isn’t what you were praying for. He loves you and wants to give you the very best. Everything you ask for in faith will be given, so do not give up hope. He will provide.
I love God so much. This week off school I gave my all to studying French. My tutor was here pretty much all day everyday and I have been so exhausted. I was able to go dancing one night and to the temple another and help cater a wedding, but French has consumed my life. I want to pass this test so I can get certified to teach and I know that God will help me so long as I show Him how bad I want it. I can’t help but worry about not passing, but I am confident that the Lord can do anything. He can most definitely help me pass this French test. I feel silly saying that I have to pass this French test because there are many more important things in life, but God knows how bad I want to. So I will just believe that He will help me pass and that I will pass. Either way, I know He’ll give me bread.
I hope you all can trust in your Heavenly Father and His love. He loves you and wants to help you, but you must trust Him for Him to help. I memorized this scripture back when I was in Book of Mormon at BYU Idaho and it has been imprinted on my mind ever since. It’s Moroni 10:32-33.
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in
Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye
sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ,
which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.”
I know Christ’s grace is real and that it can reach the deepest depths of sin. Please just believe in Him. Believe in His love. Believe in who you are and who you were designed to be. You are a child of God and therefore have divine potential. Do not let Satan allow you to doubt it. Believe like President Dieter F Uchtdorf counseled us and “Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” There is a part of you that know who you are and all you can do. Believe in that and push anything that tells you otherwise aside. Come unto Christ. He loves you and already paved the way for you to accomplish all things, all that’s left if for you is to believe and trust Him.
Here is a link for S Michael Wilcox's talk
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