I often hear uplifting stories in Sacrament Meeting about a child who was healed or a person that got a good job. I am grateful for these stories. However, these testimonies often end with, “…and so I know the church is true.”
This statement always makes me uncomfortable. Because if you follow that logic through, it means that if you didn’t get the job or your child wasn’t healed, then the church is not true.
I believe that a true testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be an island. It must stand on its own foundation, independent of the individual circumstances of your life. I have visited many less active members who, when asked why they stopped coming to church, also list an event as the reason for their lack of testimony.
Individual events in your life should be a source of gratitude, not knowledge that the Gospel is true. Otherwise, your testimony will blow in whichever direction the circumstances of your life dictate.
Two months ago a woman, whose son had died the night before in a car accident, stood in church and bore her testimony that the Gospel is true and that her son is in a better place. As I listened, I knew that her testimony was not built on an event. Her testimony is an island, independent of individual circumstances.
Matthew 5:45 …for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
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ReplyDeleteI think that often we do mistake the coincidences of life to be a blessings or a curse. The first strengthening our testimony the latter weakening it even to the loss of our faith altogether.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord plans all things, and there are no coincidences. Meaning that when something bad happens to a righteous person it doesn't take God by surprise.
God gave us the gift of free agency. He knows already what choices all of us will make. But if He were to take away the free agency of wicked men just so the righteous don't have to be bothered by their poor choices He would not be a fair and just god.
This is my main point here. God has a plan for us that we do not yet know. And often times what we consider to be "rain" actually turns out to be a great blessing in our lives. That through trials He perfects and refines us. Our testimonies, if they are a true testimony, should reflect this.
1 Peter 1:7
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
When the Lord chooses to bless us it should strengthen our testimony. When the Lord chooses to test our faith, it should strengthen our testimony. And when the Lord allows wicked people to exercise their free agency and those poor choices affect the righteous, it should strengthen our testimony.
To turn our back on God because something bad happened in our lives is a terrible mistake. This is the time that we should let him carry us through our trial and make our burden light.
Alma 33:23
23 And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen.