Proved and Strengthened in Christ
Proving moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you.
My dear brothers and sisters, I feel the love of the Lord as we meet together. I am humbled to speak with you. I pray that the Spirit will carry into your hearts what the Lord would have you hear, far beyond the words which I will speak.
Long ago I sought to learn physics and mathematics in my college years. I felt overwhelmed. I began to feel that I was trying to learn something that was beyond me. The more I felt overwhelmed, the less I felt the strength to keep trying. My discouragement led me to feel that my efforts were almost fruitless. I began to think of quitting, of doing something easier.
I felt weak. As I prayed, I felt the quiet assurance of the Lord. I felt Him say to my mind, “I am proving you, but I am also with you.”
I did not know then all that those words meant. But I knew what to do—I went to work.
By pondering and working during the years that followed, I came to understand this message of encouragement in the scriptures: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
I learned that my struggle with physics was actually a gift from the Lord. He was teaching me that with His help, I could do things that seemed impossible if I had the faith that He would be there to help me. Through this gift, the Lord was working to prove and strengthen me.
The word prove has several meanings. To prove something is not simply to test it. It is to increase its strength. To prove a piece of steel is to place it under strain. Heat, weight, and pressure are added until its true nature is enhanced and revealed. The steel is not weakened by the proving. In fact, it becomes something that can be trusted, something strong enough to bear greater burdens.
The Lord proves us in much the same way to strengthen us. That proving does not come in moments of ease or comfort. It comes in moments when we feel stretched beyond what we thought we could bear. The Lord teaches that we are to continue to grow and never tire in our efforts, that we never give up, that we keep trying.
When we continue to have faith in Jesus Christ—even when things might feel impossible to us at the moment—we become spiritually stronger. The sacred scriptural records emphasize this truth.
The prophet Moroni, for instance, was proved and strengthened in such a way. He lived his final years alone. He wrote that he had no friends, that his father had been killed, that his people had been destroyed. He was hunted by those who sought his life.
Yet Moroni did not despair. Instead, he engraved his testimony of Jesus Christ on plates for people he would not live to see, including the descendants of the people who desired to kill him. He wrote for us. He knew that some would mock his words. He knew that some would reject them. Yet he kept writing.
In his proving, Moroni’s faith was refined and strengthened. It became more pure. His words carry the power of one who endured faithfully to the end. We can feel that power as we read his testimony:
“Now I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my brethren, the Lamanites; and I would that they should know that more than four hundred and twenty years have passed away since the sign was given of the coming of Christ.
“And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.
“Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
“And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
Moroni’s testimony was refined in loneliness, but it shines with light to guide all generations to seek our Father in Heaven and the Savior Jesus Christ.
Another Book of Mormon prophet, Jacob, was proved and strengthened as a child who experienced afflictions and much sorrow. But his father, Lehi, taught him God would bless him through his trials.
“And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
“Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.
“Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother, Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men.”
The Prophet Joseph Smith experienced such proving and strengthening when he was in Liberty Jail. In the depths of his anguish, the Prophet Joseph cried out:
“O God, where art thou? …
“How long shall thy hand be stayed?”
The Lord saw in Joseph’s suffering the sanctifying effect of his enduring it well when He replied:
“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.”
The greatest example of proving and strengthening occurred through the Savior’s Atonement. He took upon Him the sins of the world. He bore our pains and our sorrows. He drank the bitter cup. He proved faithful in every moment.
Because of His glorious Atonement, Jesus Christ can strengthen us in our times of trial. He knows how to succor us because He has felt all the challenges that we will ever feel in mortality. “He will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people … that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”
We learn that while in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior did ask the Father if the trial could pass over Him—but then He also said that if it was the Father’s will, then the Savior would do it. In other words, the Savior even took on doubt and uncertainty, but He had faith in His Heavenly Father.
Brothers and sisters, your proving and strengthening may not look like Moroni’s or Jacob’s or the Prophet Joseph’s. But it will come. It may come quietly, through the trials of family life. It may come through illness or disappointment or grief or loneliness.
I bear witness that these moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you. Rather, they are evidence that He loves you enough to refine and strengthen you. He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.
If we remain faithful in our service, the Lord will refine us. He will strengthen us. And one day we will look back and see that those very trials were evidence of His love. We will see that He was shaping us to be able to stand with Him in glory. As the Lord’s Apostle Paul stated at the end of his own life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
I testify that God knows you. He knows the trials you face. He is with you. He will not forsake you. I testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our strength, our Redeemer, our hope. If we trust Him, He will make our spiritual power equal to every trial we are called to bear. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.