Don’t Miss This Devotional
It’s about Time
From a devotional address, “Be Still, and Know That I Am God,” given to students at Ensign College in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on November 3, 2020. Read the full text at ensign.edu.
How you spend your time, and what you spend it on, matters a lot.
From the days of Adam and Eve until the days of Joseph and Emma Smith, the world changed rather slowly from one generation to another. Without streetlights, headlights, and light pollution, people enjoyed an abundance of natural heavenly light. In today’s cities, however, it is almost impossible to see the night sky as Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Elisabeth, Jesus, and the early Latter-day Saints did.
People in former times also enjoyed a natural silence. But today, noise from cars, planes, and music has completely drowned out the natural world. Even in remote forests, the silence is often broken by the flight of a jet in the sky above.
And people of earlier times experienced solitude in ways we cannot imagine. Today, even when we are alone, we can be tuned in with our mobile devices, laptop computers, and televisions. The ever-changing world we live in is crowded with things to keep us entertained and occupied.
Do You Have Time?
As an Apostle, I now ask you a question: Do you have any personal quiet time? I have wondered if those who lived in the past had more opportunity than we do now to see, feel, and experience the presence of the Spirit. If your life is void of quiet time, would you begin today to seek for some?
It is important to be still and listen and follow the Spirit. Everyone needs time to meditate and contemplate. Even the Savior of the world, during His mortal ministry, found time to do so: “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone” (Matthew 14:23).
We all need time to ask ourselves questions or to have a regular personal interview with ourselves. We are often so busy and the world is so loud that it is difficult to hear the heavenly words “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10; see also Doctrine and Covenants 101:16). We need this reassurance.
Mobile electronic devices are a blessing, but they can also distract us from hearing the “still, small voice.” They need to be our servants, not our masters. For example, if later tonight you share inspiring thoughts from this devotional on social media, your smartphone is a servant. If you randomly surf the internet—especially if you are looking for inappropriate content—your smartphone is your master.
Remember what Elijah learned: “The Lord was not in the wind: … the Lord was not in the earthquake: … the Lord was not in the fire,” but the Lord spoke in the “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11–12).
How Do You Spend Time?
Honestly, how much time do you spend every day on your smartphone or tablet, not including for employment, school, or Church work?
Their use is appropriate, and they are a blessing. However, when smartphones begin to interfere with our relationships with friends and family—and even more importantly, with God—we need to make a change. For some of you, the adjustment will be slight; for others, it may be significant.
I am also concerned that excessive text messaging, Facebooking, tweeting, and Instagramming are replacing talking. I mean sincere talking, directly one to another. I mean talking in prayer with our Heavenly Father. I mean talking about the things that matter most in life.
Too often, young people find themselves in the same room with family or friends but busy communicating with someone who isn’t even there. They are missing an opportunity to visit with those nearby. When you see this happening, maybe you need to send them a text message to get their attention!
Some of the most important things I have learned in my life came from listening to those with great experience, those who had lived longer and learned many important things that I needed to know. Please take advantage of opportunities to visit and talk with your parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents while they are still with you.
Do You Respect Sacred Time?
I also worry that some of you check your email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts or send text messages during the most important gathering in the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—our sacred sacrament meeting. In this important meeting we should focus on the Lord through praying, singing hymns, and partaking the emblems of His body and blood.
Sacrament meeting is not the time to check social media, the news, or the score of an athletic event. You cannot connect to the Spirit during the presentation of the sacrament while you are looking at or sending a message on your smartphone or your tablet. You need a spiritual connection that requires the Light of Christ, settling from your minds into your hearts with burning love and devotion.
I know that many of you have your scriptures and other Church resources on your phones and tablets, and some parents and Church leaders are concerned about this development, but I am not. The Church has always adopted advances in technology to help push the work of the Lord forward, especially in missionary work.
For example, currently 98 percent of missions throughout the world have missionaries using smartphones as part of their work. This has been a great blessing, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has greatly enhanced their ability to connect with others as they work to find, teach, and baptize. Missionaries have been blessed in miraculous ways.
History does repeat itself in the most interesting ways. In the past, Israel preserved the words of the prophets on scrolls. At some point, the early Christians adopted the codex, the early version of the modern book.
Here we are 2,000 years later, and people are reading scriptures on smartphones or tablets—reading scriptures just as Jesus did when He was given an Isaiah scroll to read from in Nazareth. You too can “scroll” (see Luke 4:17) to find scriptures, but please, do not “scroll” through distractions during the presentation of the sacrament. Surely, during those few minutes you can focus on the Atonement of the Savior as you seek the Spirit of the Lord to bless you for the coming week.
Consider putting your smartphone or your tablet in airplane mode for the entire Sunday block. You will still have access to the scriptures, general conference talks, hymns, and manuals in the Gospel Library app, but you will not be distracted by incoming text messages or other notifications.
Can You Find Time for Refuge?
In addition to finding time to contemplate and meditate, we also need to find a place, as mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, that will be “a defense, and … a refuge from the storm” (Doctrine and Covenants 115:6).
We need a special time and place of refuge where we can turn off our electronic devices so we can connect to the Spirit of God.
One of the best places to connect with the Spirit is in the temple—the house of the Lord. Of course, the same can be said of our other dedicated Church buildings, including seminary and institute classrooms. We can find refuge in our homes or apartments when we choose to simply shut things off and be still and know of the things of God.
To help us discover the world where Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and Joseph and Mary found God, and to help us find a place to feel and hear the voice of the Lord today, I invite you to go to the temple. We look forward to the time when temples can be opened again for all proxy ordinances. Once they are, I invite you to go as often as possible and turn off your smartphones and put them away before you enter the temple grounds.
In all the ordinances in the house of the Lord, you will hear beautiful language, words, and promises given by the Lord to His children. It is the only place you can hear those beautiful, inspiring words.
If you do not qualify for a temple recommend right now, I invite you to prepare yourself to be worthy of a temple recommend and come to the temple as soon as you can. May you have a desire to get a recommend and attend the temple regularly.
I assure each of you that as you go to the temple or visit the temple grounds, you will walk on sacred, holy ground. You will hear the still, small voice of the Spirit in the temple or on its sacred grounds in ways you never will at the mall, in restaurants, and in public places. In fact, the temple is a wonderful place to receive answers to your prayers.
Can You Take Time Today?
The world in which we now live is moving very rapidly away from the teachings of Christ in its laws and its customs. Satan is working overtime to confuse God’s sons and daughters and to divert the very elect from fulfilling their duty and receiving a fulness of the Lord’s blessings.
Satan wants you to think you no longer have time for the good habits you learned at home, in seminary and institute, and on your missions—such as having daily scripture study, praying daily, worthily partaking of the sacrament weekly, and giving genuine, heartfelt service. He also wants you on the sidelines in today’s important and crucial battles, not anxiously engaged.
But remember, we are at war—a continuation of the war that began in the premortal world. Don’t just stand on the sideline. Take time for those important habits each day. “Put on the whole armour of God,” as Paul invited us to do. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (See Ephesians 6:11–12.)
As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to take time to join in the battle. Put on the armor of God, and do it today. (See Alma 34:32.) Don’t wait until you get married, start your lifelong career, or get older. The Lord needs you now!