Editor’s note: To support personal and family gospel learning, the Church News is publishing articles on messages from October 2025 general conference. It is recommended to listen to or read the full address in addition to reviewing these resources.
About this talk
- “Forsake Not Your Own Mercy”
- Elder Matthew S. Holland | General Authority Seventy
- Sunday afternoon session of October 2025 general conference.
- Theme: God’s children, despite their flaws, have access to divine help and healing through Jesus Christ.
Read the full message here.
Read a summary of Elder Holland’s message here.
Outline
- The biblical story of Jonah offers power to seekers of happiness, especially those struggling.
- In the Old Testament, after Jonah sails away from a calling to declare repentance in Nineveh, he volunteers to be thrown overboard in a storm. The Lord prepares a great fish to swallow and save him, but when he goes to Nineveh, he resents the mercy shown to his enemies.
- Having a doctrinal understanding and spiritual witness of the Fall is a great blessing. A fallen mortal condition is essential to having joy.
- A testimony of the Fall does not excuse sin, but it should temper frustrations when things go wrong or when seeing a moral failing in others. This testimony can help believers be more like God, such as more merciful to all — including themselves.
- Jonah’s story directs readers to Him who can deliver them from the effects of the Fall. Jonah may be flawed, but this is what makes his personal witness of Jesus Christ so inspiring.
- Catastrophe brought on by a regrettable habit, comment or decision can leave one feeling forsaken. But whatever the cause or degree of disaster, there is always dry ground for hope, healing and happiness (see Jonah 2:2–9).
- To anyone who feels cast off, sinking in deepest waters, “forsake not your own mercy.” They have immediate access to awe-inspiring mercy — through Jesus Christ — despite human flaws.
- Crying unto God, turning to the temple, clinging to covenants and serving with thanksgiving bring a vision of God’s special covenantal love. The power of God’s loyal, untiring, inexhaustible and tender mercies can deliver His children from any sin or setback.
- Look to the living Christ, who rose from His three-day grave having conquered all. Turn to Him, for in Him is found the full and happy healing from the Fall, healing that all so urgently need.
Reflection questions
What do you learn from Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:2–9) about repentance and mercy?
How might our fallen state be “essential to the very reason we exist”?
What other scriptural characters found mercy despite their flaws? What do you learn from their stories?
When have you found divine help and healing through Christ, despite your flaws?
How might you “forsake not your own mercy” in everyday challenges?
Speaker quotes
- “Here on earth, ugly weeds grow, even strong bones break, and all ‘come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). But this mortal condition — a result of choices made by Adam and Eve — is essential to the very reason we exist: ‘that [we] might have joy’ (2 Nephi 2:25).”
- “For a saint, when catastrophe is brought on by a regrettable habit, comment or decision, despite so many other good intentions and earnest efforts of righteousness, it can be especially crushing and leave one feeling forsaken. But whatever the cause or degree of disaster we face, there is always dry ground for hope, healing and happiness.”
- “You have immediate access to divine help and healing despite your human flaws. This awe-inspiring mercy comes in and through Jesus Christ.”
Reference scriptures
- “For it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are fallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.”
- “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”
- “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
Invitations and promises
- “Start by refusing to listen to the ‘lying vanities’ (Jonah 2:8) of the adversary, who would tempt you into thinking that relief is found in sailing away from your spiritual responsibilities. Instead, follow the lead of the repentant Jonah. Cry unto God. Turn to the temple. Cling to your covenants. Serve the Lord, His Church and others with sacrifice and thanksgiving.”
- “Whether we are facing a deep, Jonah-like catastrophe or the everyday challenges of our imperfect world, the invitation is the same: Forsake not your own mercy.”
- “Look to the sign of Jonah, the living Christ, He who rose from His three-day grave having conquered all — for you. Turn to Him. Believe in Him. Serve Him. Smile. For in Him, and Him alone, is found the full and happy healing from the Fall, healing we all so urgently need and humbly seek.”
Stories
- The biblical story of Jonah offers power to seekers of happiness, especially those struggling. In the Old Testament, after Jonah sails away from a calling to declare repentance in Nineveh, he volunteers to be thrown overboard in a storm. The Lord prepares a great fish to swallow and save him, but when he goes to Nineveh, he resents the mercy shown to his enemies. “God patiently teaches Jonah that He loves and seeks to rescue all His children.”
- Jonah recounted that although he was cast in the midst of the seas, the Lord brought up his life from corruption (see Jonah 2:2–9). Similarly, those who feel cast off, sinking in deepest waters, have immediate access to divine help and healing despite their human flaws. This awe-inspiring mercy comes through Jesus Christ.
From the footnotes
- 1. A mere 48 verses in total, the book of Jonah is a compressed, poetic classic of numerous doctrinal truths and spiritual lessons. See “A Latter-Day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament,” by Ellis T. Rasmussen, published in 1993, pages 653–57; “Verse by Verse: The Old Testament, vol. 2, 1 Kings Through Malachi,” D. Kelly Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner, published in 2013, pages 133–38. Ogden and Skinner note that due to the power of the teachings of repentance in the book of Jonah, it is “read in synagogues on the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people — the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur — which also centers on repentance and forgiveness.”
- 9. Jonah 2 is a later testimony and psalm of thanks, much of which describes Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the whale.
- 10. Jonah contrasts with someone like Job, who appears seemingly innocent with respect to the suffering that comes to him. Both are stories of faith and resilience in the face of catastrophe, but Jonah’s might be more relatable for those who feel their own deeds are the justifiable source of their pain.
Additional resources
- Related image: “Jonah on the Beach at Nineveh” by Daniel A. Lewis
- Related video: “God Is in Relentless Pursuit of You”
- Related hymn: No. 1010, “Amazing Grace”
Recent conference talks on mercy
- Elder James R. Rasband: “The Plan of Mercy” (April 2025)
- Elder Ulisses Soares: “The Savior’s Abiding Compassion” (October 2021)
- Elder Dale G. Renlund: “Do Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God” (October 2020)
Who is Elder Holland?
- Elder Matthew S. Holland was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in the April 2020 general conference. The oldest son of President Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Holland served as president of Utah Valley University from 2009 until 2018.
