However halting our steps are toward him

Sincerely striving to follow Jesus will try our faith and our patience sometimes sorely.

Even with all its travail, however, it is the trek of treks.

 

As we all know, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ gives us abundant answers. But Jesus also asked some searching questions which tell us even more about the stretching journey of discipleship. To those who inquired about His authority, Jesus, in turn, put a pointed question, saying, “Answer me.” They could not.

“Where are the nine?”

What desirest thou of me?

“What think ye of Christ?”

“Will ye also go away?”

Jesus was weary but never bored. He was ever tutoring, but never condescending. His doctrines are like glistening diamonds with many dimensions, displaying their verity and beauty, facet by facet, depending on the faith and preparation of the beholder.

Jesus had access to immense power but never used it improperly. He refused to put on a show for sign-seeking Herod. Legions of protective angels waited Christ’s command, a command which never came.

Jesus was often misunderstood and rejected. But He felt most forsaken and alone on Calvary just as the final act of the Atonement was enveloping mankind in His eternal love. Ironically, during the moments when in agony He was benefiting billions upon billions of mortals, He was attended by only a faithful few.

His infinite atonement affected every age, every dispensation, and every person. Hence the appropriate symbolism of His bleeding at each and every pore not just some in order that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

There will be no end to the ripples of the Resurrection resulting from the infinite Atonement. There will be no end either to the posterity of those who receive eternal life eventually more posterity than the stars in the heavens.

How infinite indeed!

These observations describe only in small part Him who said, “Answer me,” reminding us from Whom that invitation has come. May we, answer Him with the entirety of our lives……

Neal A. Maxwell

We can't foresee the turning of the tide when problems beset us and tears are cried.

Sometimes life deals from the bottom of the deck filling us with worry and leaving us a wreck.

The enemy seeks to devour and destroy, using deceptions to eliminate our joy.

While walking through the valley, our heads hung low, the mountain top seems so high, our footsteps slow.

How many times have we traveled this road to battle the frustrations of troubles bestowed?

Yet when we come to our darkest hour God demonstrates His infinite power.

It doesn't matter how bad things might seem, He always comes through, our faith to redeem.

God will not fail us in our times of pain. He'll never forsake us, by our side He'll remain.

So when we find ourselves at a total loss or when the valley seems too wide to cross,

just remember you're in His love and care, look over your shoulder, He's always there!

author unknown

“The sweetest feeling in mortality is to realize that God, our Heavenly Father, knows each one of us and generously permits us to see and to share His divine power to save.”

Thomas S. Monson

….I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it.

Jeffrey R. Holland

Though we may feel we are like a broken vessel we must remember that vessel is in the hands of the divine potter.

"The tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way."

Jeffrey R. Holland

"Every person is different and has a different contribution to make.

No one is destined to fail."

Henry B. Eyring

I know not by what methods rare, but this I know - God answers prayer,
I know not when He sends the word that tells us fervent prayer is heard.
I know it cometh  soon or late: therefore we need to pray and wait.
I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I thought.
I leave my prayers with Him alone, Whose will is wiser than my own.

author unknown

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God….He wishes us to come unto him, to follow him, to be comforted by him. Then he wishes us to give comfort to others. However halting our steps are toward him though they shouldn’t be halting at all his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son. May we come unto him and his gospel and be healed. And may we do more to heal others in the process. When the storms of life make this difficult, may we still follow his bidding to “come,” keeping our eye fixed on him forever and single to his glory. In doing so we too will walk triumphantly over the swelling waves of life’s difficulties and remain unterrified amid any rising winds of despair.

Jeffrey R. Holland