Psalm 22:4–5
Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
When our problems seem great and the future uncertain, when we wonder whether there is a way out or a way around or a way through, we would do well to remember that our personal (or collective) forebears had the same fears we have and were blessed with help from on high. It gives us hope to remember that others before us needed deliverance and they received it. Sometimes those solutions came quickly, sometimes they came only after months and years, but they came nevertheless.
When the young Nephi needed to rally his brothers to faithful action, he asked them to remember the even more difficult tasks that their fathers had faced in earlier times. “Let us be strong like unto Moses,” he said, “for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground.”79 We will do better in our hour of need if we can remember that those before us faced even more challenging troubles than we and still “came through.”
A missionary who feels homesick or discouraged needs to remember that those who served before him or her also felt homesick and discouraged but “came through.” A young mother feeling unbearable pain over the behavior of a child needs to remember that her mother before her may have felt the same fear but eventually “was delivered.” Those who face financial loss or professional ruin can take courage that others have experienced the same thing but they “trusted in [God]” and worked their way through—probably not easily and perhaps not soon, but successfully nevertheless.
When difficult times come, remember that others have faced all of this and more, not the least of whom were our great pioneer fathers and mothers in the early decades of this Church’s history. They walked with faith in every footstep and sought a place “which God for [them] prepared.”80 They cried unto God and were delivered when the very thought, the very hope of deliverance, seemed to be furthest from realization.
We can trust Him to deliver us, too.
Notes