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By Rachel Sterzer Gibson, Church News
After Jesus learned of the death of John the Baptist, He departed by ship to a “desert place” (Matthew 14:13), only to be followed by the multitudes.
Peter watched as Jesus had compassion on the masses, healing the sick and preaching to them. Peter also witnessed the Savior multiply five loaves and fishes to feed 5,000 men, women and children.
Yet less than a day later, it was Peter who called out to the Savior, “Lord, save me,” when he noticed the boisterous wind and was afraid and began to sink as he tried to walk on the water to Jesus.
"And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Church News executive editor Sarah Jane Weaver said: “We should all have the greatest empathy for Peter.”
Speaking to students and faculty gathered in the Cannon Activities Center on the BYU–Hawaii campus in Laie, Hawaii, on Tuesday, February 20, Weaver noted that like Peter, Latter-day Saints have promised to follow the Savior and have witnessed His compassion and His miracles. Yet they too might experience moments when they doubt.
But while Peter’s doubts are detailed in the New Testament, the scriptures also relate that he overcame them.
And just like Peter, “we too can receive all that the Lord has in store for us — even as the wind is contrary — as we exercise faith and courage and let God prevail.”
Miracles Everywhere
Like Peter, Weaver said she has experienced boisterous wind and longed to understand the hard issues intersecting her life, asking Heavenly Father, “Do you see me?”
Months after the COVID-19 pandemic had been wreaking havoc in nations across the globe, President Russell M. Nelson asked Latter-day Saints to “let God prevail” in their lives in an October 2020 general conference address by the same name.
“Yet, this is an impossible task if we don’t truly believe that He sees us, is aware of our struggles and knows and understands the desires of our hearts,” Weaver noted.
Also like Peter, Weaver said she has been a witness of the rolling forth of the Lord’s Church. As a reporter and editor of the Church News, she has watched prophets and apostles meet with members in large and small gatherings across the globe and seen many modern miracles.
In his October 2020 general conference address, President Nelson emphasized that individuals must be “willing” to let God prevail in their lives.
Said Weaver: “I have a great testimony that God prevails. But as I heard President Nelson emphasize the word ‘willing,’ I realized that while I believe in His miracles and grace for others, it is harder for me to glimpse the power this can and should have in my own life.”
President Nelson promised, “As you choose to let God prevail in your lives, you will experience for yourselves that our God is ‘a God of miracles.’”
In accepting the Prophet’s invitation, Weaver said she began to see miracles everywhere.
The Old Testament records that when the children of Israel, bearing the ark of the covenant, “stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan” (Joshua 3:15-17), the Lord did not send His miracle and the waters did not part until their feet were wet.
“Often when I examine my doubts, I realize I have mis-ordered my belief. I want the miracle first and always promise the Lord my faith in return. But the Savior has given us a different pattern. Faith always precedes the miracle — we must first ‘choose to let God be the most important influence’ in our lives before He will direct our paths,” she said, citing a teaching from President Nelson.
Turn to God, Not Away From Him
Early in her marriage, Weaver shared how her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. Believing God could heal him, but fearing He might not, “I stopped praying altogether,” Weaver said.
When a Christmas song on the radio in her car testified of Jesus Christ, Weaver finally spoke out loud to Heavenly Father and was filled with assurance that, regardless of her husband’s health, things would be all right.
“Groundbreaking treatment for my husband was a miracle for our family. A separate miracle, however, took place within me,” she said.
In contrast to the moments when her faith has faltered, Weaver said she has also witnessed what happens when, amid doubts, individuals turn to God and not away from Him.
After relating experiences about observing President Nelson minister to youth in Colombia and to Latter-day Saints in Tonga, Weaver noted that prayer is one way to access the Lord’s miracles. Other times, miracles occur as God’s children reach out to one another.
In a Brigham Young University devotional in January 2021, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said sometimes he is asked why Latter-day Saints don’t experience the types of miracles that defined the early days of the Restoration. He said his reply is always the same. “We do.”
It takes both faith and courage to let God prevail in our lives, President Nelson taught. It takes “persistent, rigorous spiritual work and consistent, daily effort to seek and respond to personal revelation.”
Added Weaver, “It means not only believing that the Lord performs miracles for others, but that He performs miracles for you and for me. It means knowing that He sees each of us and that He will save us.”
Hawaii recently faced a disaster in Lahaina, Maui. One survivor, talking about moving forward in the months after the fire destroyed her community, said: “If you look for it, you can see God’s hands everywhere.”
Weaver added, “The lesson from this faithful sister is powerful: We won’t see the Lord’s miracles unless we are searching for them. This seeking is one way to overcome doubt.”
In conclusion, Weaver shared, “It is my prayer that amid our greatest doubts, we will cry unto the Lord and believe that He will see us and will save us.”
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