When the Devil Shall Send Forth His Mighty Winds

Like this picture, I found myself on the receiving end of what I might consider "shafts in the whirlwind" the other night. The wind was blowing so hard it was causing tiny particles of dirt to sting my skin and if I hesitated for just a moment in bracing myself, I was sure to be blown off course. As I was encountering these mighty winds, I had one scripture running through my head:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundations; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

                                                                                       Heleman 5:12

I have always understood these words in theory. I know that when trials and hard times come, if we have lives centered on Christ, we have no need for fear. It wasn't until this moment, however, when the literal wind was beating upon me that I really understood the importance of the rock of Christ. There are winds that are annoying, there are winds that are brisk, and there are gentle breezes, but there are also those winds that have enough power to shake, tire, stall, and knock you over. These winds have incredible force and bring with them the words, "Give in. Don't stand against me." yet as we build on our rock as we gain a sure foundation we have no need to cower or fall, we can stand tall and face the oncoming winds. Though we will feel their force, and exert full energy of soul to withstand them, in the end they will just rush by leaving us with our rock.

What kind of winds are you facing? What winds have you let blow you over? I testify that Christ is the ultimate source of strength. When we make the decision to center our lives on him, we can withstand those winds. We will have no need to fear.

The Courage to Exercise Faith

I have had many times when I have had to choose faith, and most of those times have required a little bit of courage on my part. I can still remember the first time I had to really exercise faith. I was sitting in my college apartment staring at my recent pay check stub and the tithing slip sitting next to it. My stub read $239.16. My rent for the month had already taken $215 and my tithing was going to require the last $24. That would leave me with exactly 16 cents to get me through the rest of the month.

"I can always catch  up on my tithing later," were my thoughts. "The Lord understands that I need to eat. He knows that I have already been trying to spread $100 dollars over a month's worth of time and that I can't make it through two more weeks on what would now be a grand total of $11.16. I can't do it. He understands." Every fiber of my being was crying out in favor of keeping that $24. It may not have been much, but it tripled what I already had. My conscious, nurtured by the teaching of my parents, was putting up its own fight, however, and even though the litany in favor of waiting to fill out the tithing slip continued it was increasingly losing ground. "Just wait and pay it later. He understands." The words were still echoing in my head but they were getting quieter and quieter as I thought about all the times that the Lord may have understood my parents' circumstances but rather than asking him to, my parents went without and trusted in the promise that the Lord would open the windows of Heaven. With a huge sigh I opened my checkbook and wrote out a second check. The first check made the trip down to the office to ensure housing, and the other found its way into a gray envelope with my Bishop's name on it.

Not all of my experiences have been so extreme. I have not always been asked to step off the edge and pray that the Lord would catch me. In every instance where I was asked to exercise my faith; however, I was never dropped. After I paid my tithing I was blessed by an angel in the disguise of a roommate who offered to share and pay for the first two months of groceries. Another Angel asked if we could carpool to work, helping me save on my gas money. I cannot deny the window to heaven that opened before my gaze or the unmeasurable blessing that fell out.

I learned a lesson that Richard C. Edgley sums up nicely when he says, "Be aware that faith is not a free gift given without thought, desire, or effort. It does not come as the dew falls from heaven. The Savior said, “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28) and “Knock, and it shall be [given] you” (Matthew 7:7). These are action verbs—come, knock. They are choices. So I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism"

Faith comes in small decisions or in big ones, and it often-for me-requires a great deal of courage. Let's not deny ourselves the blessings though. In the case of faith I can echo President Thomas S. Monson's declaration "Courage Counts!"