LET GOD PREVAIL
Everyone in this life will face challenges. We may need to overcome a debilitating addiction or live the rest of our lives with an incurable disease. It may be the loss of a loved one or loneliness, or a multitude of other seemingly impossible situations. The question isn’t whether challenges will come, but how we will respond when faced with them.
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We may be tempted to pray and ask our Heavenly Father to remove the challenge from us. But sometimes these prayers may go unanswered, and we are left to wonder why. We can lose hope and even turn away from God, thinking that He isn’t there or He doesn’t care.
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There is another path we can take, however. This path requires us to trust. Trust that our Heavenly Father is all-powerful and has all knowledge, that He really is our Father, that He loves us, and that He knows what is best for us. This is what faith is: to continue traveling God’s covenant path even when we don’t understand why we’re going through the trial we’re facing or know what the end result will be. This is the faith that Jesus Christ had when He said,
“Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
This is what it means to let God prevail in our lives. And this is what we, as part of modern-day, gathered Israel, are called to do. Let God prevail.
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Russel M. Nelson, Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said, “With the help of two Hebrew scholars, I learned that one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is 'let God prevail.’ Thus, the very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life. That concept stirs my soul! The word willing is crucial to this interpretation of Israel. We all have our agency. We can choose to be of Israel, or not. We can choose to let God prevail in our lives, or not. We can choose to let God be the most powerful influence in our lives, or not.”
Later in his message, President Nelson shared a story about his granddaughter-in-law, whom he called “Jill”.
“Despite fasting, prayer, and priesthood blessings, Jill’s father was dying. She was gripped with fear that she would lose both her dad and her testimony. Late one evening, my wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, told me of Jill’s situation. The next morning, Wendy felt impressed to share with Jill that my response to her spiritual wrestle was one word! The word was myopic. Jill later admitted to Wendy that initially she was devastated by my response. She said, ‘I was hoping for Grandfather to promise me a miracle for my dad. I kept wondering why the word myopic was the one he felt compelled to say.’ After Jill’s father passed on, the word myopic kept coming to her mind. She opened her heart to understand even more deeply that myopic meant nearsighted. And her thinking began to shift. Jill then said, ‘Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan and that my dad still lives and loves and looks out for me. Myopic has led me to God.’ I am very proud of our precious granddaughter-in-law. During this heart-wrenching time in her life, dear Jill is learning to embrace God’s will for her dad, with an eternal perspective for her own life. By choosing to let God prevail, she is finding peace.”
It can be the same for us; as we choose to let God prevail in our lives, we can find peace.
President Nelson’s talk, Let God Prevail inspired these images.
If you would like to read his full talk, you are invited to follow this link.