Pray for change or pray for strength?

So lately a realization hit me. Tyler and I have been through a lot since before we got married and are still going through some really hard times. I've always prayed that my problems would go away or change or something would make the problems better or something like that. I was always thinking, "God never answers my prayers!!!" I got mad and blamed God and even started to doubt him and even his existence.

Well, in the last few weeks, or months I guess, actually, I changed my prayers for the most part to include something like this instead: "Please bless me with the strength, faith and encouragement to withstand these hard times"... etc. I don't repeat all my prayers. They're not memorized. I pray with my heart and mean every word I say.

So instead of praying for something to go away or change, I prayed for strength to deal with what I had to go through. Well, I shouldn't have to say this but I will anyway, it worked!
I have been at more peace and a lot happier since I've started praying like this.

I recently lost one of my best friends. I feel completely used by her and taken advantage of. I cried myself to sleep a few nights and couldn't sleep the rest of the time, even woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep cuz I was just so upset over the entire ordeal.

I was super upset about all of this. So finally I prayed and asked Heavenly Father if he would help me shoulder this heartache. I knew I couldn't change any of it. I did the absolute best thing I could do to rectify and clear things up, but relationships never work if both people aren't willing to give their all to it. So I knew I had to go through this. And also to learn a lesson or two, or twenty, so instead I prayed for strength to go through it. Well, the next morning I woke up happy, refreshed, and not feeling all depressed or feeling any despair! I felt good!

I've found that instead of trying to get God to feel sorry for me and change my circumstances and praying for strength and faith to withstand or remain strong then my prayers are answered!!!
It makes me happy to know God IS THERE!!!!!! He DOES listen!!!!!

He CANNOT take choices away from people. So people will always be bad and mean, people will always be selfish and hurtful, people will always lie and steal, kill and abuse. People will always have their own choices to do whatever the heck they want!! So that will always directly or indirectly affect us.

Our own choices determine to an enormous extent the situations in which we find ourselves on a daily basis and they change the course of our lifetime all the time! So... God CANNOT take these choices away from us or anyone else. But what he CAN do is give us the strength to get through them!

He can "carry our crosses", so to speak, through all the hard times we have.
I mean, that's one of the blessings WE ALL HAVE thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
I love my Heavenly Father.... but I'm sure not even close as much as he loves me!!!!

Who, And What, Is God

I've been wanting and thinking and feeling that I should write about God. So I'll do that today, being Sunday, and I feel that it's appropriate for the Sabbath.

The first and most important thing we must come to learn, understand, believe in and accept is the knowledge of God, who he is, how he is, and how that relates to and affects us as individuals and as a whole.

Over time God has had many different names and identities to all people. Everybody sees him in a different light and level of belief.

Where did God come from? When and where did the idea of God first come from anyway?

There are many different books of scripture (Holy Word) that come from "the beginning of time" or the "beginning of all things" or just the "beginning of this world".

History books and stories, legends and ghost stories all take us back to the belief of a God, or gods, and Lucifer, or Satan, the Devil, the Adversary, the Fallen Star, etc.

These are the most ancient and legendary stories of all.

Men throughout time have changed, made up, written, told, believed and dreamed up stories about God and the Adversary.

So which books are true?

Well, that's for you to decide, based on two things: Logic & Feeling.

Now, the most basic and logical beliefs of God, from my personal opinion and based on scripture, are as follows:

God Lives; he is live and living (Gen 1:27; Ex 31:18; Luke 24:39; John 14:9; D&C 130:1; D&C 130:22; Mosiah 7:27).

God is Immortal and does not change (Psa 102:27; Heb 13:8; Moroni 10:7; D&C 20:11-12; D&C 76:4).

God knows all things (Jer 1:5; Acts 2:23; 1 Nephi 9:6; 2 Nephi 2:24; W of M 1:7; Abr 2:8).

God is glorious (Ex 24:7; Num 14:21; Ps 19:1; Isa 40:5; Matt 6:13; Luke 2:9; Luke 9:32; John 1:14; Philip 4:20; Titus 2:13; 2 Nephi 12:19; Mosiah 4:12; D&C 4:5; Moses 1:5).

God is intelligent (Isa 55:8; D&C 88:41; Abr 3:19).

God loves (Deut 7:8; Isa 63:7; Jer 31:3; Mal 1:2; John 3:16; John 13:1; 1 Jn 3:1; 2 Nephi 1:15; Alma 13:29; 4 Nephi 1:15; D&C 95:1; D&C 138:3).

God is merciful (Ex 34:6; Deut 4:31; 2 Sam 24:14; Ps 69:16; Ps 116:5; Isa 49:15; Eph 2:4; Titus 3:5; James 5:11; 2 Nephi 4:26; 2 Nephi 9:8; Alma 9:26; Alma 42:15; Moroni 8:19; D&C 84:102).

God is perfect (Deut 32:4; 2 Sam 22:31; Matt 5:48; Heb 5:9; Heb 6:18; James 1:13).

God is powerful (Gen 17:1; 1 Sam 14:6; Jer 32:17; Jer 51:15; Matt 8:26; Matt 19:26; Matt 28:18; John 10:18; Heb 1:3; 1 Nephi 4:1; Mosiah 4:9; Alma 26:35; Hel 12:11; D&C 61:1).

God is wise (Job 36:5; Ps 136:5; 1 Cor 3:19; 2 Nephi 9:8; Jacob 4:10; Mosiah 4:9; Alma 26:35; D&C 9:3; D&C 10:43; D&C 76:2).

So we've been taught and shown that God knows all things, comprehends all things, loves, has mercy and justice, is wise intelligent, all-powerful, perfect, immortal and created all things and commands all things.

Pretty much, everything is up to God. Everything depends on GOD. God gives all life, all understanding, all intelligence, all things, and is the only way we can obtain salvation.

God does not make mistakes. God cannot lie (Num 23:19; Titus 1:2; Enos 1:6). God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor 14:33). God would not lead his children away, or tempt them to do that which is wrong and evil. God does not create evil. God does not waver or change, and is the creator of all things good, even all the commandments and the only way to salvation and Eternal life, peace, happiness and joy.

God is our father. We are his children.

If we love God, we will keep ALL his commandments, not just what suits us. We cannot assume that anything God says can be how we want to take it. If God says to do one thing or another or anything it is a commandment, logically speaking.

God also does not force. He has given us "free will", or free agency. He cannot make a good man do that which is bad or good, and cannot make a bad man do that which is bad or good. He cannot stop a murderer from murdering if it has to be stopped by force. God has power over all things BUT OUR WILLS. Our wills are the only thing we have complete control over. It is the ONLY thing we can give God. He cannot take it away. Man may try, the Adversary may try, but God will not try.

This is why bad things happen to good people. God has to allow wicked people to do what they want because he cannot force them otherwise. What they do in this life will be held against them in the next (at Judgement Day). Bad things that people do stand as a witness against them on Judgement Day. And those of us who witness or are victims to another's wicked behavior will stand as witnesses against them as well.

Because God cannot lie he will not teach false doctrine to anyone. He will not tell one man to do one thing and another man to do another. That is contradictory, and that which contradicts is a lying thing by nature.

God knows all things. He has all truth. And only through God can we obtain all truth. God will give it, because he has to in order to save us. AFter all, we cannot be saved in ignorance (Eph 4:18; D&C 131:6), and God knowing this has provided ways and means for us to obtain all that we need in this life to return to Him and live with Him for all Eternity, and with our families. God will not save a man who is willfully ignorant (3 Nephi 6:18). When we know the will and teachings of God and do them not then we are being willfully ignorant, rebelliously ignorant. God will not have mercy on us when we are like this. He would be a liar if he did. He will not save everyone just through his mercies, because there is justice that must be satisfied (Ex 23:7; Prov 17:15; James 2:21). We have to be proven in our works and in our faith, not just our faith in His mercies.

We cannot just live our life in ignorance, willfully disobeying God's commands, and suppose that we will be saved because of our faith in his mercy. That is not how God is or works.

I know what I have shared here to be true. May God's Spirit speak the truth of it to you. I pray you will understand, or want to understand and search these scriptures yourself, pray about it, and believe it.

This is the first and most important thing we all must come to know at some time in our life. And we must live our life in accordance with this knowledge if we wish to be saved in the Kingdom of God forever.