Sabbath Devotional :: Let God Prevail

View from Masada ruins over the desert in Israel

When I was a young mother in the midst of some extraordinary challenges, I was often given “glimpses” of my future as I prayed. My oldest son had needs that completely consumed the two of us and I put my career as a professional musician on hold to care for him. I don’t think that most of us will need to make such a dramatic choice, but I did not see any other way forward at the time. My son needed me more than I needed my music and I had a clear sense that the work I was doing with him was noble and good. When I prayed I received strong promptings about the music I would make in the future AND the man he would become.

In the spring of 2017, an opportunity arose to perform professionally again. The music was challenging and I was rusty and a bit anxious. But it turned out that many years of teaching piano made me a better musician and I settled right back in. For six extraordinary weeks I was immersed in the music of a brand new opera, working with the director, cast, and composer night after night. The music was exquisite, the energy was palpable, and I was doing what I was born to do. It felt like a glorious fulfillment of the whisperings of the Spirit I had felt over the previous decade.

Around that same time, I started seeing very different “glimpses” as I prayed and pondered. I heard whisperings of the Spirit telling me would have an opportunity to be a leader. I will admit to resisting quite a bit. I was just re-starting my professional music career and between those pursuits and my family’s needs, I felt very fulfilled. But, over time the promptings became clearer and clearer. I understand now that the Lord was preparing me for this role with MWEG. With the same strength I felt when choosing to put pursuits on hold in order to give my son all he needed a decade plus earlier, I was now being promised that the Lord would guide me and that my family would thrive.

And how they have thrived! That little boy who required my constant presence as a guide through his young world has blossomed these past 15 months since I became MWEG’s executive director. All of my boys have grown more independent and my marriage has evolved as we mutually balance the weight of all family responsibilities. In sacred moments, I have felt the same glorious fulfillment I experienced on the piano bench performing an opera. I feel it when my oldest son sings with his gorgeous baritone voice and I feel it when I catch an MWEG member in the act of peacemaking or when a fellow MWEG leader prays, receives promptings, and acts on them to write or create something of great worth that we can share.

What do these examples have in common? When I listened to President Nelson’s Sunday morning General Conference talk a few weeks ago, I felt a warmth running through me. He gave me a name for these experiences. I had confirmation I was doing what I was born to do because I had “let God prevail” in my life in those instances. Whether I am caring for an exceptional child or performing in an opera or leading a group of women, I am given a glimpse of heaven. I am choosing to “let God be the most powerful influence in [my] life.”

Like President Nelson, this “concept stirs my soul!” I know that the examples I gave are fairly dramatic ones, but now I have made the connection, I can see hundreds of simpler ways the Lord has worked in my life. And while I certainly have failed to let God prevail on numerous occasions, even those stumbles have eventually brought me closer to Him as I learn to love His Son and the mercy and healing He provides. My experiences with a loving Heavenly Father have taught me that everything can be consecrated for my good if I just ask and then listen.

I am eager to hear from you. How have you chosen to let God prevail in your life? What experiences have you had as you show your willingness to do so?