Elder Henry B. Eyring, from his book “To Draw Closer to God” wrote:
To hear the voice of the Holy Ghost requires a humble and meek heart. Although it may sometimes feel like chastisement when life gets difficult, remember that the scriptures tell us, “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you—wherefore, ye must needs be chastened and stand rebuked before my face. (Doctrine and Covenants 95: 1-2.) That doesn’t sound so strange once you’ve thought about it. Our Father in Heaven loves us; he wants us to be guided, and he knows we can’t be guided in arrogance. So when you’re enduring what seems to be a trial or a test, when things don’t seem to be going well, you can know that you have a loving Father who is allowing you to have experiences that can bless you.
When you are experiencing severe trial, ask yourself this question: “Am I trying to do what the Lord would have me do?” If you’re not, then adjust your course. But if you are, remember the boy outside the walls of Jerusalem who turned to his brothers and said, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them.” (1 Nephi 3:7.)
I bear testimony that the Lord will always prepare a way for you to escape the trials you will be given if you will understand two things. One is that you need to be on the Lord’s errand. The second thing you need to understand is that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it. If you pray to have the experience removed altogether, you may not find the way prepared for you. Instead, you need to pray to find the way of deliverance through it. Let me remind you of a beautiful story. One day the prophet Alma encountered a group of people who were going through terrible trials. When he saw how beaten down they were, “he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word.” (Alma 32:6).
Now, if your afflictions truly humble you, then you see that you are in a position to have the Holy Ghost whisper to you—not the way to have you difficulties taken from you, but the way to go through them on your errand for the Lord. If you will be humble and ask God what to do, I promise you that he will always prepare a way for your deliverance.~Henry B. Eyring, To Draw Closer to God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997).85-7
Elder Henry B. Eyring is a member or the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
