Doctrine and Covenants 45 - Promises Shall Be Fulfilled

In Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5 we read:

In Jeffrey R. Hollands's book, "Witness for His Names," he reminds us that the Savior is pleading our case for us, like a lawyer. In class today, we talked about how we can have the best lawyer in the world. but if we don't show up, there's only so much the lawyer can do for us. The Savior is our advocate, and that is a huge relief, but once we understand that we have him always on our side, we need to take his advice, too! 

In 1993, D. Todd Christofferson reflected on this, saying, 

"It is of great significance to me, that I may at any moment and in any circumstance approach through prayer the throne of grace, that my Heavenly Father will hear my petition, that my Advocate, him who did no sin, whose blood was shed, will plead my cause." (D. Todd Christfferson, "I Know in Whom I Have Trusted," April 1993 General Conference)

Much of Doctrine and Covenants 45 is about "wars and rumors of wars," the "the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men's hearts shall fail them," (Doctrine and Covenants 45:26) so it's a great reminder that yes, we will face troubling times, but, as Jesus reminded his twelve disciples shortly before his crucifixion: 

President Nelson recently reminded us, in the talk, "Embrace the Future with Faith:"

I also really loved Lisa L. Harkness talk, "Peace, Be Still," from the same conference. She said:

Sister Harkness drove this point home by reminding us that the disciples of the Lord were on the boat with him when it began to sink. These were extremely experienced fishermen, and for them to feel such fear, the situation was dire. Indeed, they were only human to have "waves of fear" distract them, but, Sister Harkness reminds us, "Regardless of our circumstances, we can intentionally make efforts to build and increase our faith in Jesus Christ."

Jeffrey R. Holland also puts the world we are dealing with in perspective for us:

I highly recommend watching this four-minute video from President Nelson in November 2011, called "Men's Haert Shall Fail Them." He talks about surviving an almost plane crash and why his heart did not fail him. 

Finally, I ran out of time in my lesson today because of the great discussion, so I did not get to encourage a discussion about what it means in Doctrine and Covenants 45:31-32 to "stand in holy places, and ... not be moved." I will cover this in a separate post later but for now leave you with this thought, that Zion is a holy place, and it's a place that we are all welcome to access, no matter where we live. 

In The Gathering of Scattered Israel, we learned: