Today we'll be diving into President Jeffrey R. Holland's General Conference talk, "Motions of a Hidden Fire." A powerful witness or Christ, gratitude and prayer. His thoughts on the preciousness of our time, prayer and the call to live with urgency in the name of service and love changed me.
"Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." Gilbert K. Chesterton
Today we'll be diving into President Jeffrey R. Holland's General Conference talk, "Motions of a Hidden Fire." A powerful witness or Christ, gratitude and prayer. His thoughts on the preciousness of our time, prayer and the call to live with urgency in the name of service and love changed me.
"Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." Gilbert K. Chesterton
Hello and welcome to the Latter-day Ladies podcast. I'm your host and your friend, jenny Moss, and today we're diving into President Jeffrey R Holland's recent talk at General Conference, entitled Motions of a Hidden Fire. So grab your favorite cozy drink and a blanket and let's cuddle up and chat. I have missed you guys so much. It has almost been a full month. I don't know how that's possible, but my life got, uh, twisted upside down and I became immersed in the lamb of God uh, a performance of Rob Gardner's lamb of God here in my stake, and there were just lots of performances and rehearsals and I could not keep up. But I am back and I am here to stay and I'm excited to talk today about General Conference because, oh my goodness, was this not the best conference ever? I'm pretty sure it was, and I know I say that every time, but really it just keeps getting better. It felt like such a treat to have Elder Holland as our first speaker of conference. I did audibly cheer when they announced his name, but my heart hurt as he described his sorrow and grief for his beloved wife, pat. Sorrow and grief for his beloved wife, pat. But I loved this that he said.
Speaker 1:
Right after um that experience he said I received was a part of. What I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the savior, more faith in his word, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word. And, personally, that was an answer to one of my prayers, because I have thought a lot about being separated on this side of the veil, away from my daughter and recognizing that we both have different plans and different missions that we need to fulfill, but recognizing too that, of course, there are important things to be done here and there are important things to be done there. I'm sure Heavenly Father immediately put Patricia Holland to work and has utilized her and her amazing ability to testify of Christ her and her amazing ability to testify of Christ and it was a good little reminder that I need to continue with more urgency and consecration and focus on Jesus Christ and faith in his word so that I can spend my precious time here in the way that the Lord would have me do. I also loved this quote that Elder Holland used from GK Chesterton that thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. And then Elder Holland says this with my own happiness doubled by wonder. I thank all of you and I thank my father in heaven who heard your prayers and blessed my life. I love that.
Speaker 1:
Our sweet Elder Holland testified of the power of gratitude, especially when we are seeking to connect with the Lord through prayer, how important that gratitude element is. And then Elder Holland continued on saying I testify that God hears every prayer we offer and responds to each of them according to the path he has outlined for our perfection. I recognize that at roughly the same time so many were praying for the restoration of my health, an equal number, including me, were praying for a restoration of my wife's health. I testify that both of those prayers were heard and answered by a divinely compassionate Heavenly Father, even if the prayers for Pat were not answered the way I like. It is for reasons only to God why prayers are answered differently than we hope, but I promise you, I promise you they are heard and are answered according to his unfailing love and cosmic timetable. That was a powerful testimony of having trust and faith in the Lord's understanding of how to answer our prayers, how to respond to our deepest desires and requests to him. I loved his terminology of saying that God does have unfailing love and a cosmic timetable, and isn't that true?
Speaker 1:
I especially appreciated all of the little elements of different hymns that he included, all of the little elements of different hymns that he included throughout his talk. I thought that was really sweet. And he counseled us that our prayers ought to be vocal when we have the privacy to offer them. And I have found in my own life that when I vocalize my prayers, there is power in that, and I wonder if part of that power is me utilizing my body to righteously act and follow a commandment rather than only using my brain, connecting my body and my brain to the will of God. I wonder if that allocates certain blessings that we would not receive otherwise. So that was an interesting God. I wonder if that allocates certain blessings that we would not receive otherwise. So that was an interesting thought. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
Speaker 1:
And then he says this we sing that prayers are in motions of a hidden fire, always to be offered, according to the Savior himself, to God, the eternal Father, in the name of his only begotten Son, and I thought that was a really interesting terminology, that prayers are motions of a hidden fire, and it made me think about what my own fire looks like right now. What does my fire look like as I pray and speak to God? What are the things that are fueling me? What gospel principles are lighting up my spirit and helping me connect to the most divine father? Personally, I feel like right now my fire is filled with the wonder of God's ability to recognize our future as he has the past. I've been able to see a lot of things play out in the last several weeks that really were clearly divinely orchestrated, and it's left me with a lot of awe, and so I think that right now is what the motions of fire within my own person is being fueled with. But I wonder, you know, if you take a second and think about what the motions of your hidden fire are looking like? What are the things that are fueling your heart and soul?
Speaker 1:
I love this next part that Elder Holland said. He said quote we are to employ prayer as a shield against protection, and if there be any time we feel not to pray, we be sure that hesitancy does not come from God, who yearns to communicate with his children at any and all times. I felt like that was a really awesome reminder that even when we feel unworthy, the Lord wants to hear from us. There's no moment where he says, no, you've gone too far, you've done too much. He wants to hear from his children, and if we are willing to take our hearts to him and speak with him, he will help us, and I loved that he used the savior as the example for prayer.
Speaker 1:
Elder Holland said this quote, but it has always been intriguing to me that Jesus felt the need to pray at all. Wasn't he perfect? About what did he need to pray? Well, I've come to realize that he too, with us, wanted to seek the father's face and believe his word and trust his grace, end quote. I love that thought about Jesus Christ. Of course, on this earth, he would want to seek face time with his dad. It is incredibly difficult to live here. We know this, and Jesus Christ himself needed to find solace in his father, and so, of course, we are going to need to do the same thing. I love that Elder Holland brought up this point. He said this quote Luke describes Jesus' descent into his expiation as requiring him to pray more earnestly.
Speaker 1:
How does one who was perfect pray more earnestly? We assume that all of his prayers were earnest. Yet in fulfilling his atoning sacrifice and through the pain that attended its universal reach, he felt to pray even more pleadingly, with the weight of his offering finally bringing blood from every poor end. Quote this is one of my most favorite things that elder Holland has ever shared, because I have thought about this scripture so many times. Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Those words have gone through my mind many, many times and I've realized that Jesus Christ grew into his earnestness right, I don't know if that's a word, but he grew into that, just like he grew in his faith, just like he grew in his hope, and that gave me a lot of courage to remember that in my prayer journey with God and my relationship with him, we are growing, and I can look back at 10 years ago and understand that the Lord that I know now, the Lord that I have conversations with all the time, is a much more familiar Lord than I knew 10 years ago. And so, although sometimes I get discouraged about my relationship with Christ, the ways that I want to invite him in more, I realized that there has been, there's been, growth, and that is something that Jesus Christ himself had to seek is growth.
Speaker 1:
I love this part and it's also a little daunting. He says this quote I bear witness that when Christ comes, he needs to recognize us Okay, not as nominal members listed on a faded baptismal record, but as thoroughly committed, faithfully believing covenant-keeping disciples. This is an urgent matter for all of us, lest we hear, with a devastating regret I never knew you. Or, as Joseph Smith translated that phrase, you never knew me. End quote. I love this so much, especially since we recently studied and did a deep dive me and my little scripture study group. We did a deep dive into the 10 virgins and thinking about wanting God to be someone we know, someone we're deeply familiar with, someone who, if we hear something that they say, we can recognize the way in which they form words. It's like one of those funny Buzzfeed quotes where it's like is it Elder Uchtdorf or is it Dumbledore? And being able to recognize what Elder Uchtdorf sounds like and being able to recognize what our Heavenly Father sounds like. And I liked this hope that he gives right after that question whether or not we know God. Right after that question, whether or not we know God. Uh, president Hahn said this quote.
Speaker 1:
Fortunately, we have help for this task, lots of help. We need to believe in angels and miracles and the promises of the Holy priesthood. We need to believe in the gift of the Holy ghost, the influence of good families and friends and the power and the pure love of Christ. We need to believe in revelation and prophets, seers and revelators and personal righteousness. We can ascend to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly place and the holiest of all. End quote.
Speaker 1:
That was a really good reminder for me because, recognizing that, of course, angels and miracles and the promises that we've made and the priesthood power we have, believing in the gift of the Holy Ghost, that companion that can help, influence us and help us, and the power of our community, our family and friends, and Jesus Christ himself as our buddy, as our teacher, as our partner and our friend, believing in the revelation of all the incredible leaders that we have and in our dear amazing prophet, we can, through our prayers and pleading and personal righteousness, come to know God. I have no doubt that your prayers, your pleading and your righteousness have brought you so close to Heavenly Father and will continue to do that, as your desires match with your actions. I personally have been seeking to find more ways to look for God, more ways to include him in my decisions, more ways to counsel with him on things that are troubling my heart, things that may seem small and unimportant, but of course they're important to him. I loved this last quote by President Holland. He said this quote, holland, he said this quote as we repent of our sins and come boldly to the throne of grace, leaving before him there are alms our heartfelt supplication, we will find mercy and compassion and forgiveness at the benevolent hands of our eternal father and his obedient, perfectly pure. I love that imagery of recognizing that we can not only repent for our sins but come up to the throne of grace and leaving right there all of the offering that we have, and that, with Jesus Christ, that offering will be made whole and will be enough.
Speaker 1:
I know that these prayers, these motions of hidden fire within us as we speak them, as we seek them, as we plead with the Lord, as we ask for more inspiration in our prayers, all of these actions will connect us more to our loving Father in heaven. I know that he wants to be with us. He wants to spend all of the time he can counseling, loving, supporting and comforting us, and comforting us. I know that God lives. I know that we can align our will with his as we seek and ask and listen, we can truly hear him and his voice. I love God and I love President Holland and I'm grateful for these incredible words. Holland, and I'm grateful for these incredible words, have a great day and I'll see you next week. Bye, if you liked this episode, please consider sending it to a friend or rating and reviewing our podcast on Apple Podcasts so that more friends can come and join our conversation. If you'd like Christ-centered artwork, visit our website, thelatterdayladiescom and click on the Etsy tab.