The following was shared by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland on his Facebook page.
With the current global concerns, in these troubling times, and when life becomes overwhelming, we may think that God has abandoned us and may think we are alone. We can find peace and comfort in the truth that God the Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, are aware of us and know how to help us through these times.
Believing in Jesus Christ does not mean that mortal challenges will cease to exist, but we do believe that the Lord can give us the strength to meet these challenges.
When the Savior was on the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” feeling He was alone (Matthew 27:46). The Savior had to feel alone because the whole nature of His Atonement is that He had to carry the sins and the sorrows and the suffering and the sickness of all mankind on His shoulders. He had to feel that He was alone because He needed to know how we feel when we feel alone.
There are a lot of times when we feel we are alone, there are a lot of times when we feel abandoned, a lot of times when we feel the heavens are sealed. He felt that too.
We are not alone in our mortal journey. The Savior understands us because He is not an abstraction. Because He is a living, breathing, real Son of God, as each of us is. I declare personally that Christ does know us. He has walked the thorny, difficult, rock-strewn path of our lives.
And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. – Alma 7:11-12
The following video coincides nicely with Elder Holland’s teachings as Michael shares a period of time in his life where he felt that God was silent, but upon reflection he was able to see the many times God was, in fact, there.
