Over the past couple of years I have come to the conclusion that scriptures can have multiple different meanings. Scriptures that I have "known" the meaning of take on an entirely different meaning as I learn, grow, and go through different life experiences. For instance, in D&C 61, we are told to "be of good cheer...for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you...for He cometh in an hour you think not (v. 36,38)." I have always found comfort in this phrase, but this time reading it, it hit differently. Before that always meant the Second Coming would come at a time that no one really knew. We just needed to prepare. This time, along with the previous verses, it meant that there are often times when we feel forsaken or feel like all is lost or that He isn't hearing our prayers but it is in the small moments as well as the big that His spirit comes into our lives. He is telling us that He hears us, He loves us, He is there for us, and He will never leave us. He comes into our lives even at the times when we don't expect. I love that.
We are promised that we can expect wonderful works when we pray (D&C 65:4). But we have to pray. We have to be of good cheer--which doesn't mean you have to be happy, all is right in the world all of the time because it isn't. We just have to take comfort in the fact that He is there and He wants to bless us. Then, we have to look for the blessings both big and small in our lives which, in turn, will make us be of good cheer even more! THEN, He tells us to go and "make known His wonderful works." He wants us to share those things with others so they can be of good cheer as well.
There is hope. There is comfort. There is cheer. There is love. He comes in moments that we expect like in the spiritual high of girls' camp or General Conference. He comes in the moments we don't expect when we are having a spiritual low when we don't even have the energy to pray out loud. He and His angels are there to comfort and guide us. ALWAYS. And I am thankful for that.
