The effort to receive

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Relief Society Session of the October 2006 Conference.

This session was so good! I'm amazed that I don't remember it, because these women gave three of the best talks I've ever heard about God's love. I thought it was interesting that Sister Parkin used the word "entitled": "each one of us is entitled—and needs—to feel the Lord’s love in her life daily."

There are few things in life we are “entitled” to, I think. The fact that this is one of them should give us confidence in seeking and asking for it. It’s not selfish to want to feel God’s love. It’s necessary and worth pleading for! But we also have to do our part to feel it.

All three talks give great counsel on how to feel that love more fully. Sister Hughes talks about remembering.

I’m certain that each of you has felt, at one time or another, encircled in Christ’s arms. But if you are like me, there are times when you are fearful, when the stress and busyness of life seem to overwhelm you, when you feel adrift from the Spirit. Perhaps you even feel as though you have been abandoned. When I encounter those feelings, the best antidote is my memory of the moments when Christ’s peace has come to strengthen me.…

I recognize how true it is that life often feels like a great pile of obligations, frustrations, and disappointments. But the Lord is there, always the same, His arms still outstretched. When we feel overwhelmed, we have to remember the peace He has spoken to us on previous occasions. His peace brings comfort and strength; the world cannot give that to us.

As faithful women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have been blessed with the Holy Ghost. As we invite the Savior into our lives, the Holy Ghost will bear witness to us of the love which the Father and His Son, our Savior, have for each of us. But feeling Their love is dependent not only on our desire but upon our actions as well. And the actions we need to take are known to us: genuine prayer that is specific and humble, followed by quiet listening for the Lord’s answers; regular scripture study and time to ponder what we read; and, finally, a willingness to be introspective about ourselves and to trust in the Lord’s promise that He will “make weak things become strong unto [us].” As we study and ponder, we are entitled to the promptings of the Spirit, and as we grow more attentive to these promptings, we come to recognize each day the workings of the Lord in our lives. We will find Him, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell stated, “in the details of our lives.” And when that recognition comes, we feel His peace and recognize that we are truly encircled in the arms of His love.

The thing that struck me this time was that even receiving love is a form of effort; a sign to God that we desire more of His love. Ever since President's Nelson's talk about faith moving mountains, I've thought about faith in terms of "action that unlocks miracles." It's not that we demand or deserve miracles on our timetable. But when we act in certain ways, we enable power to flow from God into our lives. (Elder Renlund speaks of that as "activation energy" required for blessings.)  

So, when we find ourselves feeling abandoned by God, we need to exert the deliberate, conscious effort to receive love—clinging to trust that He is there, looking for evidence that it's true, calling up past memories of miracles. These actions and desires, small and weak as they may be, can unlock our ability to feel His love again.

Sister Hughes ends with this:

My prayer for each of us is that we will remember when the Lord has spoken His peace to us and has encircled us in the arms of His love. And just as important, will you, if you haven’t felt that love for a while, seek to see it and feel it as you go about the ordinary tasks of your life. As you do this, over the days and months and years of your life, the memories of those interactions with the Lord will become sweet gifts to open a second time—or many times—to bolster you when life is difficult.

Other posts in this series: 

Eternally encircled in his love—by Rozy