Miracles can come as answers to prayer. They are not always what we ask for or what we expect, but when we trust in the Lord, He will be there, and He will be right. He will suit the miracle to the moment we need it.
It has been my experience that very little occurs in the way of transgression that is not first rehearsed and debated in one's own own mind. A key to avoiding these pitfalls is to let virtue guide our thoughts and deeds always, not allowing our minds to wander into places where they should not go.
Questions are an indication of a further desire to learn, to add to those truths already in place in our testimonies, and to be better prepared to “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.”
Last fall, Justice Thomas appeared at Hillsdale College to celebrate the dedication of a most unique structure on a college campus these days — a new chapel. Speaking at the dedication of the sacred space, the justice declared, “The construction of a college chapel, is a public declaration that faith and reason are mutually reinforcing.” He continued, “Let it stand as a bold declaration to a watching world that faith and learning are rightly understood as complements, and that both are essential to the preservation of the blessings of liberty.”
The modern and increasingly secular world continues to attempt to drive wedges between faith and reason and build barriers separating the human and the divine. The secularists and moral relativists seem determined to not only banish faith from the public square, but also to eliminate it completely from all institutions, including government, business and higher learning.
As experiences accumulate in our lives, they add strength and support to each other.
I close with the prophecy of Joseph Smith, words that I testify are true: “No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”26 I so testify that these prophecies of Joseph Smith are being fulfilled.
To a small gathering of priesthood holders in a schoolhouse in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834, the Prophet Joseph prophesied, “It is only a little handfull of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America—it will fill the world.”
Your temple recommend reflects a deep, spiritual intent that you are striving to live the laws of the Lord and love what He loves: humility, meekness, steadfastness, charity, courage, compassion, forgiveness, and obedience. And you commit yourself to those standards when you sign your name to that sacred document.
We live in that time prophesied; we are the people charged with ushering in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; we are to gather God’s children, those who will hear and embrace the truths, covenants, and promises of the everlasting gospel. President Nelson calls it “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on [the] earth today.”13 Of that miracle I bear my witness.
Many of you have witnessed miracles, more than you realize. They may seem small in comparison to Jesus raising the dead. But the magnitude does not distinguish a miracle, only that it came from God. Some suggest that miracles are simply coincidences or sheer luck. But the prophet Nephi condemned those who would “put down the power and miracles of God, and preach up unto themselves their own wisdom and their own learning, that they may get gain.”
Miracles can come as answers to prayer. They are not always what we ask for or what we expect, but when we trust in the Lord, He will be there, and He will be right. He will suit the miracle to the moment we need it.