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Does God Really Want My Help?
When you feel inadequate, the Savior can lift you and magnify your efforts.
Have you ever felt like you didn’t measure up? Maybe you received a calling you didn’t think you could fulfill, or maybe you felt like you fell short in your responsibilities. We’ve all been there at some point. Here are three things I’ve learned to help me gain confidence.
God Calls the Weak and Simple
On my mission, I felt inadequate about teaching other people the gospel.
I felt too young, inexperienced, and imperfect to make a real difference in anyone’s life. I wanted to point my friends toward Jesus Christ, but how?
One day, I was studying Doctrine and Covenants and came across this verse: “That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers,” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:23).
This verse filled my soul with hope and joy. The Lord didn’t say He wanted perfect people to do His work. Instead, He calls imperfect people with infinite potential—people like me and you.
God Can Magnify You
I’ve grown to love the story of the brother of Jared. The Lord gave the brother of Jared a chance to exercise agency and creativity by asking him how the Jaredites should have light within their dark boats as they journeyed to the promised land. The brother of Jared formed smooth stones from rock and asked the Lord to light the stones. The Savior touched each stone and made them glow (Ether 2:25; 3:1–6).
Similarly, when we bring God our best efforts, He can magnify them and do even greater things than we imagined. God performs the miracle, not us.
Elder Vern P. Stanfill of the Seventy said, “We must remember that whatever our best-but-imperfect offering is, the Savior can make it perfect. No matter how insignificant our efforts may seem, we must never underestimate the Savior’s power.”
You’re Doing Better Than You Think
I’ll let you in on a secret: you’re probably doing a lot better than you think. President Russell M. Nelson said, “We all need to remember: men are that they might have joy—not guilt trips! [see 2 Nephi 2:25].”
One way we can skip guilt trips is to seek perfection through Jesus Christ’s grace (see Moroni 10:32) rather than our efforts.
“Becoming perfected in Christ,” Elder Stanfill said, “relieves us of the burdens of guilt and inadequacy, always emphasizing who we are in the sight of God.”
Although I still struggle with feelings of inadequacy, I’m learning to involve the Lord in my self-improvement. As I’ve humbled myself, He’s turned my weaknesses to strengths (see Ether 12:27).