May 1, 2016, 11:47 pm - James Farrer
It has struck me lately that God is incredibly merciful. This is largely a result of personal struggles I've had and has been, at least in part, distilled the last few days into a fairly concrete thought as I prepared and taught a lesson for church today.
Simply put, I've seen God's hand in my life recently and felt the cleansing power of the atonement. This even at times when I didn't see that mercy as fitting for my circumstances. Nonetheless, I am incredibly grateful for that mercy and the patience and love He has shown me this week, month, year, etc.
While reading Helaman 11 I was struck by the cycle of wickedness, rightousness, and wickedness that happened in the period of less than 10 years. We're talking significant changes in the level of rightousness in a society within a short few years for the same group of people.
This led me to realize how we all have periods of rightousness contrasted with periods of relative wickedness in our lives. Some of them span decades, some years, some months, some weeks, and some even days. Through all of this, as Elder Holland stated in the last General Conference, God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. He offers mercy and forgiveness even when we may not think we deserve it. But he sees our worth. He knows us. He loves us. He is arranging help for us through the growing process. We simply need to remember Him, do our best to keep the commandments and follow him, and then seek His help.
Before I consciously started preparing the lesson I shared today, I was struck by certain passages, thoughts, and events that led up to me being able to share a surprisingly coherent lesson accompanied by a strong and emotional testimony and a healthy dose of the Spirit.
I am grateful for God's constant love, guidance, and care in my life and hope and pray that I can live worthy for all of that to continue.