This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1983 Conference.
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| Jesus Blessing Jairus’s Daughter (Christ Raising the Daughter of Jairus), by Greg K. Olsen |
I especially liked pondering these things in this week leading up to Easter:
Faith in [Jesus Christ] is more than mere acknowledgment that He lives. It is more than professing belief.
Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him. As God, He has infinite power, intelligence, and love. There is no human problem beyond His capacity to solve. Because He descended below all things, He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties.
Faith in Him means believing that even though we do not understand all things, He does. We, therefore, must look to Him “in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
Faith in Him means trusting that He has all power over all men and all nations. There is no evil which He cannot arrest. All things are in His hands. This earth is His rightful dominion. Yet He permits evil so that we can make choices between good and evil.
His gospel is the perfect prescription for all human problems and social ills.
But His gospel is only effective as it is applied in our lives. Therefore, we must “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”
Unless we do His teachings, we do not demonstrate faith in Him.…
What then is the answer to the question “What is to be done?” concerning the problems and dilemmas that individuals, communities, and nations face today? Here is His simple prescription:
“Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
“… Believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.” (Mosiah 4:9–10; italics added.)
I especially liked that part about helping us "rise above our daily difficulties." Something I think about fairly often is how the ultimate, incomprehensible pain of Christ's atonement is really only meaningful to us in tiny, personal glimpses. It's easy to see that some of the best and most compassionate work Jesus did was to accept the pain of—I don't know, truly agonizing things, like the pain of starving in a concentration camp, or the pain of losing a child unexpectedly, or the pain of abuse. But for me, it seems just as amazing to think about how he knows exactly the pain of my hurt knee, or my headache, or my embarrassment when I do something stupid.
It seems fitting for a God to absorb the grand and noble sufferings, but to experience my own almost embarrassingly trivial pains—my "daily difficulties"—truly seems like "descending below all things," and knowing He did THAT that increases my love and gratitude for the Savior all the more.
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