As we finish up Acts with the Come, Follow Me Bible study, we see that Paul’s ministries were full of much affliction. In fact, he faced constant persecutions that resulted in continuous beatings, stoning, and imprisonment. He faced all of this while trying to follow the Lord with exactness. It would have been easy for him to get discouraged, or to feel frustrated and give up. Yet, we don’t see that, we see happiness. Where does Paul find the joy to sing praises to God after being beat and thrown in prison? How does he find ways to be of “good cheer”, while being accused of false charges.
Acts 23:11 And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.
Acts 27:22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.
Acts 27:25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
I love these three verses, because we too can “be of good cheer” with our own difficulties. We may not be faced with angry crowds of people who seek to take our lives, or who beat us, and then toss us into prison for having committed no real crimes. These things may never happen to us, but we do have to fight our own battles, whether they are physical, emotional, or spiritual, they are still difficult to face. How can we, too, follow the Lord’s plea to be of good cheer?
I believe the secret has two parts, one being we need to recognize God’s hand in our lives (see Acts 23:11) Second, we need to believe God. (See Acts 27:25)
In Jacob 5 the Lord asks us to labor in the vineyard with him. He doesn’t say, “While I take a nap.” Or “This is a test for you to do alone.” No, he calls all of us to follow him, and to labor side by side him. He then explains that this is where joy come from, it comes from being on God’s side.
Jacob 5:75 blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard.
We shall have joy!! Aren’t peace and joy what we all ultimately seek? It’s almost too simple. It reminds me of the plague, where all the people had to do was look at the staff to be saved, yet many didn’t look. It was too simple. We have the same promise–if we will LOOK TO GOD then we will be saved from the ever growing plagues of our day: sadness, hurt, anger, bitterness, despair, and many more. He is our light and our way to happiness.
A good friend recently shared her conversion story with me. She explained that she had investigated our church for some time, but just wasn’t ready to commit. She was overcome with severe depression. Unable to fight it on her own, she turned to the missionaries, and she started coming back to church. While at church one day, she was talking to a lady about her struggles and this lady, her friend, shared an article that admonished doing three things every day to be happy. I don’t have the article, but I have her testimony. She read the article and it told her that she needed to pray, read her scriptures, and do service every day. Like Paul, she believed God, and made the choice to look to him for her happiness. She fully committed to doing these three things. At the time, she had been going through such heavy depression that she had many excuses as to why she couldn’t do these things right now. Despite her depression, she followed through with exactness. She listened to the scriptures in her bed, she prayed while lying in her bed, and for her service she would get up and do something for her family–she would wash the dishes, or clean the family room for example. She testifies that still today she does these three simple things daily, and they have pulled her completely out of her despair, and she has not slipped back down. She has some hard days, but with her eyes firmly on the Lord, she is able to get back up quickly.
“Be of good cheer, and do not fear.” (D&C 68:6)
“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” (D&C 6:36)
There will be days for all of us where we are running towards the Lord, but there will be many more days when we are crawling. The important part is that we are moving towards him, with our eyes, ears, hearts and minds turned to him, and then doing the things we need to do to shake our own individual prisons, and free us.
The Lord needs us. He needs us to be happy, during good times and bad times. If we are at sea in the storm of our lives, and wondering if we will be dashed upon the rocks, let us BE OF GOOD CHEER.
“In the Savior’s final week of mortality, He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Because the Savior performed His Atonement, there is no external force or event or person—no sin or death or divorce—that can prevent us from achieving exaltation, provided we keep God’s commandments. With that knowledge, we can press forward with good cheer and absolute assurance that God is with us in this heavenly quest.” -Tad R. Callister
-Sherri Jorgensen
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