2019
Where Were the Blessings “God Hath Prepared”?
August 2019


“Where Were the Blessings ‘God Hath Prepared’?” Ensign, August 2019

Come, Follow Me: New Testament

August 19–25 (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Where Were the Blessings “God Hath Prepared”?

We can’t always imagine how God will guide and bless us, but sooner or later blessings will come.

Image
young woman under umbrella in rain

Photo illustration from Getty Images

One night as I knelt to pray, the panic set in.

In less than two months, I was going to graduate from college, leave my two jobs, and find myself with few options for employment in the small town where I lived. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, my husband, Nick, still had a year left in his university program—a program that was making him miserable.

We had to make a lot of difficult decisions fast. Should I look for a job elsewhere? Should Nick transfer schools?

I was an emotional wreck. We had tried making an action plan—we had gone to the temple, prayed often, and made decisions based on what we felt was the Lord’s guidance. But then something out of our control had foiled our plan, forcing us to start all over. This had happened again. And again.

Now I felt paralyzed, blind to what the Lord wanted me to do.

Incomprehensible Blessings

I didn’t feel an answer from Heavenly Father immediately. But as Nick and I continued to pray, read the scriptures, and go to the temple, we clung to the hope that blessings and guidance would come.

Just when it seemed like nothing would go right for us, everything began to fall into place. I received a job offer I couldn’t refuse. Nick transferred schools and enjoyed his new program. Other problems were miraculously resolved.

It wasn’t until months later, when I came across 1 Corinthians 2:9, that I realized what the Lord had done for us: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Warmth flooded through me as I felt the Holy Ghost testifying of the truth of this promise. Even though there were plenty of times when God seemed to be silent during our time of need, we had endured in faith. And Heavenly Father, in His own time, had fulfilled His end of the promise by blessing us in unexpected, incomprehensible ways—ways that my eyes couldn’t see and my heart couldn’t imagine.

Peace in Our Future

As I look now to my future, I realize that there will always be hard decisions to make, changes to adapt to, and trials to endure. But if I remember the promise in 1 Corinthians 2:9, I’ll know that unimagined blessings await. As long as my husband and I keep our end of the promise and “love God with all [our] might, mind and strength” (Moroni 10:32), we have nothing to fear. The unknown future may seem daunting, but something incredible will come.