Reassurances

It has been a wonderful day! The highlight of it all was our spring stake conference though awkward the schedule is. It was a spiritual feast. It was great blessing to hear from an Apostle of the Lord, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Present were his wife, Elder and Sister Causse of the Seventy, and the stake presidency.

In January 2007 during my first year as a full-time missionary, Elder Richard G. Scott visited different missions in the Philippines area. The whole Quezon City Mission (with the exception of Mindoro Zone) went to Buendia, Makati City to attend the devotional with Elder Scott. I had developed a habit of taking out my journal and my pen whenever there is a speaker who will address a congregation. I usually wrote the exact words of the speaker and trying to catch up with everything that speaker would say, I’d normally get lost. At that devotional with Elder Scott, he taught us that instead of writing the speaker’s words, write what the spirit is teaching you. In other words, we were encouraged to record our feelings, spiritual impressions, thoughts that came to our mind as we listened intently, seeking personal revelation. I had changed that habit of mine and followed Elder Scott’s counsel. Since then, I had spiritual feasts just listening to the speaker and paying more attention to the voice of the Spirit.

When such conferences or meetings are held, I always have my journal with me. And tonight, I paid attention to my feelings. I was looking forward to Elder Holland’s talk. I needed spiritual rejuvenation. I needed to recharge. And what great a blessing could it be than to hear an Apostle of the Lord! During the meeting, I had just one reassurance – that the Lord never leaves us. Sometimes He would leave us alone in the face of His wrath when we commit sin, but He returns with kindness and tender mercy. That’s in Helaman 10 I believe. I was reassured that the God of the heavens, the same God who keeps the planet in orbit, who has the power to resurrect, the God who has created the infinite expanse of the universe does love us and does watch over us. He cares for us. There is nothing that He could not fix. To Him,  a human problem would just be a flick away from solving it. He lives! He knows that we have shortcomings and weaknesses. He understands us most. He expects us to learn from our mistakes and have the faith to move forward and to never look back – to learn from the past and point our faith in Jesus Christ to the right direction – forward, not backwards. If we do not decide to learn from the past, we could make history repeat itself once again and do things we had done before.

I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father. I would declare to the whole world that we have a loving Heavenly Father, who sent His Only Begotten Son so we can have the opportunity and grand blessing to return to live with our Father in Heaven in His Kingdom. His Atonement is real. We can be forgiven. And we can choose to move forward and obey the Lord’s commandments and live the covenants we have made. Like Elder Holland said, “covenants are stronger than transgressions, the Priesthood is more powerful than sin, righteousness will always prevail.” In this battle of good and evil, we already know who the winner is. It’s about time to decide which side we’re on and our decision will be reflected on the kind of life that we live.