We are all taught while growing up the importance of having faith.  With faith, we can move mountains.  With faith, we can be healed.  Faith can do anything if we push ourselves.  Then there is the question that everyone of us has thought about and debated, but why should we exercise faith if it is contrary to God’s will and plan?

     Promises are found again and again in the scriptures talking about how faith can save us and lead us and guide us, “Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith” (Alma 44:4).  Clearly, we are being taught that if we have faith and we stay faithful unto God then we will be saved and blessed.  On the contrary, we are not always given what we exactly want. Faith is a tricky subject because it is so simple to have faith, but it is so hard to have the right faith.  One can have faith in a living God, but also believe that man knows all and what man wants, man should get.  The other faith is that God’s plan is the right plan and we pray that we follow it.      

     My grandma, for a while, was suffering from cancer.  She had to be released from her mission after only a couple of months.  She suffered each day.  She had faith that all would be well, she had faith in God.  She had faith in His plan.  God loves us so he created a plan for us.  We don’t quite understand that plan, nor can we see all that He sees.  Written in the Doctrine and Covenants we read, “Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass.  Thy days are known and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever” (D&C 122:9).  Here God tells us that He knows our days.  He has a plan for us that is so precise we can’t comprehend it.  We shouldn’t be scared with what the world may do with us because He promises to be with us forever and ever.  Even though my grandma wanted to live longer, she wanted to see us all married and grown up, she had faith that God’s plan was right and that is what she needed to follow.  She channeled her faith in God, rather than praying contrary to His will.  It was hard for my grandpa to watch though, his heart wanted to pray for her well-being, but his mind knew that it was her time to go.     

            One scripture that has really helped me learn more about God’s will, “Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks; Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.  Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord” (D&C 98: 1-3).  Here the Lord promises us that He hears our prayers and that they will be granted.  They will be granted in His way and if we are faithful to our covenants.  God always listens to us and keeps His promises, but He answers our prayers in an even better way then we could imagine.  Therefore, if we exercise faith in Him, then we don’t have to worry about what we think we want.  It is so eloquently put into words by Elder Schmutz in the October 2016 General Conference, “As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, He allowed sorrow to be woven into our mortal experience. While it seems that painful trials fall unevenly on us, we can be assured that to one degree or another, we all suffer and struggle” (God Shall Wipe Away all Tears, Elder Schmutz).  

We must remember God’s plan always.  It is the map of our existence, although bad stuff happens to every one of us there is a purpose.  There are reasons.  We may pray and pray and we may feel that God isn’t answering, but He is just holding something greater in store for us.  The best is always yet to come, God answers our prayers in his time and in His way and the blessings are more beautiful than we could imagine, so we don’t have the ability to pray for it because we can't quite understand it.