“The Power of Sustaining Faith (excerpts),” New Era, May 2019, 14–15.
The Power of Sustaining Faith (excerpts)
Many times I have heard priesthood leaders give thanks for the sustaining faith of those they serve. From the emotion in their voices, you know their gratitude is deep and real. My purpose today is to convey the Lord’s appreciation for your sustaining His servants in His Church. And it is also to encourage you to exercise and grow in that power to sustain others with your faith. …
You choose whether to sustain all whom the Lord calls—in whatever the Lord has called them. … By raising your hand to sustain, you make a promise. You make a promise with God, whose servants these are, that you will sustain them.
These are imperfect human beings, as are you. Keeping your promises will take unshakable faith that the Lord called them. Keeping those promises will also bring eternal happiness. Not keeping them will bring sorrow to you and to those you love—and even losses beyond your power to imagine. …
In addition to improving in sustaining those who serve in the Church, we will learn that there is another setting in which we can increase in such power. There, it can bring even greater blessings to us. It is in the home and family.
I speak to the younger priesthood holder who lives in a home with his father. Let me tell you from my own experience what it means for a father to feel your sustaining faith. He may look confident to you. But he faces more challenges than you know. At times he can’t see the way through the problems before him.
Your admiration for him will help him some. Your love for him will help even more. But the thing that will help the most is sincere words like these: “Dad, I’ve prayed for you, and I have felt that the Lord is going to help you. Everything will work out.
I know it will.” …
In the priesthood quorum and in the family, increased faith to sustain each other is the way we build the Zion the Lord wants us to create. With His help, we can and we will. …
As we grow in that pure love of Christ, our hearts soften. That love will humble us and lead us to repent. Our confidence in the Lord and in each other will grow. And then we will move toward becoming one, as the Lord promises we can [see Doctrine and Covenants 35:2].