Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth.
And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.
And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring ... the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth.
And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.
And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.
And Alma, and Ammon, and their brethren, and also the two sons of Alma returned to the land of Zarahemla, after having been instruments in the hands of God of bringing many of the Zoramites to repentance.
I figure if this phrase is repeated so many times I ought to ponder what it means and try to put it into effect in my life. So I looked in the gospel library on the church web site. A few quotes really stood out to me explaining this:
President Faust said, “You can be powerful instruments in the hands of God to help bring about this great work. … You can do something for another person that no one else ever born can do”
Wow! That really hit me - to think there are things we can do that no other person ever born can do! So how do we know what to do to be instruments in his hands. This concept from Don Clark of the seventy explained one way to do it:
"I have a little book that I carry with me, where I record the inspiration and thoughts that I receive from the Spirit. It does not look like much, and it becomes worn out and needs to be replaced from time to time. As thoughts come to my mind, I write them down and then I try to do them. I have found that many times, as I have done something on my list, my action was the answer to someone’s prayer. There have also been those times that I didn’t do something on my list, and I have found out later that there was someone I could have helped, but I didn’t. When we receive promptings regarding God’s children, if we write down the thoughts and inspiration we receive and then obey it, God’s confidence in us increases and we are given more opportunities to be instruments in His hands."
Kathleen Hughes of the relief society presidency added this that really struck me too.
"God knows the needs of His children, and He often works through us, prompting us to help one another. When we act on such promptings, we tread on holy ground, for we are allowed the opportunity to serve as an agent of God in answering a prayer”
My conclusion is that we need to actively be seeking for opportunities to be instruments in the hands of God by constantly being open to promptings on how to do it. It might be as simple as making a kind comment to a co-worker when inspired to do so, to something bigger, like establishing an exercise business so a struggling single mom you know can have a job.
It's my challenge to myself and to all of you to start this weekend actively looking for ways, each day to be an "instrument in the hands of God."
2 comments:
I hope that I can be in tune enough to the Spirit to know where I should be and who I should talk to and what I should say so that I can be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
Thanks dad! I do pray daily that I can be instrument in the Lord's hands. After I read your post, I was thinking of ways that I can improve on this. Lately I have been getting promptings to visit a new lady that moved into our ward, but I have been so busy I have not made time to heed this prompting. I finally made the time to go and visit her and she was so happy.
I think that is my biggest downfall. Sometimes I am so anxiously engaged in what I think are good causes, that I fail to prioritize. After reading your post and an excellent article in this month's Ensign about simplifying our lives, I have been pondering about ways that I can simplify my life so that I am more available for the things that the Lord needs me to do.
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