Sunday Services August 9: Our Plan vs. The Lord’s Plan

Good morning brothers and sisters. It’s a wonderful opportunity that I’ve been given to speak to you this Sabbath day. It’s a little intimidating to have this responsibility since this it’s been so long that we’ve all met together and shared our perspectives. I’ve been humbled these past few months and I’ve really come to appreciate the foresight and spiritual sensitivity of our church leaders. It really is marvelous when we consider the programs and policies that we’ve seen introduced over the past couple years and how they have become a crucial part of how we have had to worship for the past several months. It is these types of tender mercies that really hit home and help me to remember just how much our Heavenly Father cares for us and loves each of us individually.

When Bro. Oyler asked me to speak today he didn’t give me a specific topic, just to talk about anything that has come up in my recent studies. I need to be honest here, I haven’t been as diligent as I should be with my personal scripture study of late. As a family, my wife and I have recently finished our way through the Book of Mormon (I think this is the 7th time we’ve finished it over the past 8.5 years). So, we started again from the beginning and we’ve been reading the familiar story of Lehi and his family.

I’ve felt impressed to speak about the differences between the plans that we make for ourselves and the plans that the Lord prepares for us. Lehi must have had a plan for his family that surely did not involve moving them out into the wilderness and telling his neighbors they were wicked and the judgements of the Lord would come upon them. We see this all the time in the scriptures (and even in our own lives). I’m sure Alma the Younger didn’t plan to have an angelic visitation. I’m sure Mary and Joseph didn’t plan to raise the Son of God. It wasn’t always my plan to study physics in graduate school, and it certainly wasn’t my plan to fit a quarantine into my life. Like all of these people, and everybody else in the history of the world, we all make plans for our lives that fit into what we can see.

The insight that we have into how our lives will unfold dictates the plan that we lay out for ourselves and those closest to us. We may enhance that insight through prayer and study, but that insight can only see so far. We learn in the scriptures that the Lord can “see the end from the beginning,” this is what allows Him to make a plan that will carry us further than we can carry ourselves and the reason that we should trust Him. In Alma 37:37 we read “counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good… and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.” That ‘lifting’ that Alma speaks of enables us to see the path of our life and from that vantage point we are able to see how the Lord’s Plan has impacted our life and we will see that He has directed us for good. An example of this process from my own life came just one year after being married. We both had decent paying jobs in Maryland, but we each felt that life held more for us. We prayed and felt it was right for us to move across the country to Las Vegas. We only knew 4 people that lived there; Kelly’s mom and her sister’s family. We didn’t have a job lined up, we didn’t have a place to live, and we didn’t have any idea how things would work out. But we felt it was right, so we went ahead and made the move, over the protests of bosses and close friends. I was able to get a job right away (I actually was hired while we were traveling). We found an apartment we could afford and we settled into life in the desert (I like to think of it as our own personal wilderness; and it wasn’t very long before we questioned the decision; we didn’t really enjoy our time there for a number of reasons). We didn’t see the end from the beginning, but we trusted in the Lord. It turned out to be an enormous blessing for us to be there for that time. It opened doors for us we didn’t even know were there and the path for our life was drastically altered and the direction it started to take was better than what we would have had in Maryland. But the biggest blessing was something that we could never have foreseen. We were able to be spend a great deal of time with Kelly’s mom for the last two and a half years of her mortal life. That time we spent with her is a treasure beyond value to us and I’m sure it was treasured by her as well. The Lord is good to us. He has a Plan for each of us. That Plan may be so different from what we have come up with for ourselves that it may seem unwise or even foolish to follow, but as long as we remain close to the Spirit and ‘counsel with the Lord,’ we will be led to blessings that we couldn’t attain on our own.

Now the question becomes, how do I know if I’m on the path the Lord has laid out for me? This is something that I wonder almost everyday of my life. The only real answer that I can come up with is, ask Him. It is through prayer that we learn the will of the Lord. He has supplied us with tools of communication as we make this mortal sojourn on the Earth. We have prayer, we have the scriptures, we have living prophets, we have our local church leaders, we have ministering brothers and sisters, we have our families and our friends, and most importantly, we have the gift of the Holy Ghost. All of these sources are available to us so that we can learn and grow in our capabilities to discern our Path through life. When we are in a position to hear the voice of God, we can learn what it is He would have us do. One of my favorite verses in the scriptures deals with this very thing. It’s in Daniel 10:9, “Yet heard I the voice of his words…” The ‘voice of his words.’ Think about that for a moment. His words, the Lord’s words, are contained in the scriptures. When we are reading the scriptures we read the words, but we also hear His voice. This is the still, small voice that we have learned about and discussed since Primary. This is the voice of the Lord speaking directly to us through the Holy Ghost. This is the voice that gives us guidance, and more importantly assurance, that we are following the path the He has prepared for us. I would encourage all of you to actively seek that voice while you read your scriptures, or listen to conference talks, or listen to my talk. Have an internal conversation with that voice (this is what is meant by ‘counsel’; it’s two-way communication), and be prepared to follow whatever counsel He gives you. That is the way you can assure yourself that you are on the Lord’s path for you.

Brothers and sisters, I love each of you. I’m grateful for the chance that I’ve had this morning to discuss these things with you. I know that the Savior lives. I know that He suffered and died for each of us individually. I know that He wants each of us as individuals to approach Him and speak with Him and become acquainted with Him so that He can direct us to blessings that are beyond our own capabilities to attain. The gospel is perfect and the blessings of exaltation are available to all who seek them diligently. The path the Lord has laid out for each of us on the earth today contains this pandemic. As long as we stay close to the Lord in all that we do, we will be led to great blessings even though the path is difficult and frustrating at times. We can’t see how all of this will end, but He can. We just need to trust in His wisdom and grace. The other side of this challenge we all face unknown to us, but it is known to Him and because He is the source of all good things I know that we will be surprised at just how good things will be once this is all over. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Talk by John Waite