Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Sunday, March 9, 2025.
We live in a unique and challenging time. In fact, you don’t have to scroll far to read of the complexities that surround us. Natural disasters, societal tensions and disinformation can breed uncertainty and anxiety. Additionally, we each deal with personal trials that are difficult and heavy that we often carry silently.
In a world that seems to spin ever faster, when right side up seems upside down, or when we feel burdened with worry, what can we do?
We can choose faith. Choosing faith is the antidote to every trial we encounter and to anything that would bring doubt or spark fear. Choosing faith means we choose to hope and to believe it will be OK in the end, even if in the present that seems impossible. Choosing faith means we do all we can to improve our situation, and then we trust God, knowing that He is mindful of our exact circumstances.
Sister Patricia Holland, a woman of great faith, said, “I don’t think faith is faith until that’s all you have to hang on to” (see Church News podcast, episode 84, with host Sheri Dew, “Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Sister Patricia Holland— Service, Health, Faith, and Devotion to Jesus Christ,” May 24, 2022, thechurchnews.com). What a wonderful way to articulate faith.
When we feel we have nothing left, we can look to God and plead, “Help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). “Help me to choose faith.” As we constantly carry that prayer with us, our faith will increase and be confirmed. Eventually, our prayers will transform from a plea for faith to a statement of faith: “I am choosing faith.” That declarative prayer brings power and allows God to do His work in our lives.
When we have faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, He lightens our burdens, eases our worries and turns our despair into hope.
It is my experience and that of millions more that as we choose faith, especially when it is all that we might have left, we will be delivered. The Lord Himself said: “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. … For I am the Lord thy God, … thy Saviour” (Isaiah 43:1-3).
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
