President Henry B. Eyring on trusting God

President Henry B. Eyring (born May 31, 1933) served in the Presiding Bishopric from 1985-1992, as a Seventy from 1992-1995, then was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He has served in the First Presidency since 2007.

"God sends messages and authorized messengers to His children. I am to build trust in God and His servants enough that we will go out and obey His counsel. He wants that because He loves us and wants our happiness. And He knows how a lack of trust in Him brings sadness.

"That lack of trust has brought sorrow to Heavenly Father’s children from before the world was created. We know through the revelations of God to the Prophet Joseph Smith that many of our brothers and sisters in the premortal world rejected the plan for our mortal life presented by our Heavenly Father and His eldest Son, Jehovah. (See D&C 29:36–37; Abraham 3:27–28.)

"We don’t know all the reasons for Lucifer’s terrible success in inciting that rebellion. However, one reason is clear. Those who lost the blessing of coming into mortality lacked sufficient trust in God to avoid eternal misery.

"The sad pattern of lack of trust in God has persisted since the Creation....

"The young Nephi in the Book of Mormon stirs in us a desire to develop trust in the Lord to obey His commandments, however hard they appear to us. Nephi faced danger and possible death when he said these words of trust that we can and must feel steadily in our hearts: 'I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.' (1 Nephi 3:7.)

"That trust comes from knowing God. More than any other people on earth, we have, through the glorious events of the Restoration of the gospel, felt the peace that the Lord offered His people with the words 'Be still, and know that I am God.' (Psalm 46:10.) My heart is filled with gratitude for what God has revealed about Himself that we might trust Him."

- Henry B. Eyring, "Trust in God, Then Go and Do," General Conference October 2010
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What does it mean to trust in God? It's easy to be grateful and feel confident when we perceive that blessings are received. But when prayers are unanswered or answered in ways we don't desire; when blessings are delayed; when disappointments occur—those are times when we are tested to see if our trust is real and sincere. President Eyring points out how much a lack of trust in God has impacted mankind, including the beginnings in the pre-existence.

But with the abundance of revealed knowledge and understanding, we have many reasons that we should feel trust for Him:

We can trust God when we know God—and perhaps only then. As we come to know Him better, our experiences will build faith and confidence for him in our lives and trust will come easy.

(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2018)