"There is a guide for receiving the Lord’s power of deliverance from opposition in life. It was given to Thomas B. Marsh, then the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was in difficult trials, and the Lord knew he would face more. Here was the counsel to him that I take for myself and offer you: 'Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.' (D&C 112:10.)
"The Lord always wants to lead us to deliverance through our becoming more righteous. That requires repentance. And that takes humility. So the way to deliverance always requires humility in order for the Lord to be able to lead us by the hand where He wants to take us through our troubles and on to sanctification.
"We might make the mistake of assuming that illness, persecution, and poverty will be humbling enough. They don’t always produce by themselves the kind and degree of humility we will need to be rescued. Trials can produce resentment or discouragement. The humility you and I need to get the Lord to lead us by the hand comes from faith. It comes from faith that God really lives, that He loves us, and that what He wants—hard as it may be—will always be best for us.
"The Savior showed us that humility. You have read of how He prayed in the garden while He was suffering a trial on our behalf beyond our ability to comprehend or to endure, or even for me to describe. You remember His prayer: 'Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.' (Luke 22:42.)
"He knew and trusted His Heavenly Father, the great Elohim. He knew that His Father was all-powerful and infinitely kind. The Beloved Son asked for the power of deliverance to help Him in humble words like those of a little child.
"The Father did not deliver the Son by removing the trial. For our sakes He did not do that, and He allowed the Savior to finish the mission He came to perform. Yet we can forever take courage and comfort from knowing of the help that the Father did provide:
"And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
"And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,
"And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. (Luke 22:43–46.)
"The Savior prayed for deliverance. What He was given was not an escape from the trial but comfort enough to pass through it gloriously."
- Henry B. Eyring, "The Power of Deliverance," BYU devotional Jan. 15, 2008
Click here to read or listen to the full talk
(Note: this talk by President Eyring is also reprinted in the April 2019 New Era .)
When we have "opposition" or adversity in life, we need to remember the advice the Lord gave to Thomas Marsh. Humility is a profound key to receiving assistance from the Lord. That almost seems too simple; but as President Eyring explains, true humility leads to repentance and righteousness, enabling us to draw down the power of God to provide divine support; then God can "lead us by the hand where He wants to take us through our troubles and on to sanctification."
The struggles of life don't necessarily produce humility on their own; it requires faith in Jesus Christ to find that kind of submissive trust and confidence. The Psalmist put it beautifully:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2019)
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