We’re not going to survive in this world, temporally or spiritually, without increased faith in the Lord—and I don’t mean a positive mental attitude—I mean downright solid faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one thing that gives vitality and power to otherwise rather weak individuals.
A. Theodore Tuttle, "Developing Faith", General Conference, October 1986
How many of us, if the Lord asked us to get up and with our families and provisions, leave our homes and our jobs to go into the desert and just walk, just travel? Not knowing why we are leaving or not knowing where to go?
First of all, I would be second guessing myself, I would wonder if that calling or revelation came just by an impression or a thought of my own doing. I would WANT to be exactly sure that the Lord is asking this of me and my family. Secondly, I can't walk far or survive long without AC, so there's that. But, that is where faith would kick in. That is where trust in the Lord would be absolutely vital. Could I do it? I like to think so but I've never been put to a trial of faith like that.
Years ago, in late 2013, after my diagnosis, Lori and I decided to move out of the heat of the Gilbert area and go back up north with our family. We had previously moved from up north down to Gilbert in summer of 2010. But we knew that heat exacerbates my condition so living in cooler weather would be better... logical right? And, we had already lived up there so we weren't going into the unknown. To us, it made sense.
Well, we didn't ask Heavenly Father if we should do that. That was the first mistake. It was a logical move in our minds. The Lord requires us to figure things out first sometimes and so we figured He'd be good with our decision.
Well, He wasn't. He had other plans for us. The entire time, after we had left and were living with my parents and looking for a house, Lori and I just didn't feel right about the move. We had an uneasy feeling. We THEN (😬) decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father about what we needed to do. And so, after many weeks, we decided to go back down to Gilbert into our original home (that hadn't even sold) and then we were finally at peace.
I learned a few things from this. I learned that my ways are absolutely not His ways. I learned that to secure my own well-being is sometimes selfish on my part. I learned, of course, to just ask Heavenly Father before executing on a decision. And... I learned a bit more to just trust Him....He knows what we need better than we do.