"Be still my soul, thy God doth undertake, to guide the future as He has the past."
In my times of trial, it helps me to remember that God has never forsaken me in the past. It helps me to think of specific times in my life when I thought all was lost, but in retrospect, I can see that God was there all along. This is one of the reasons I love journaling. As I read my old journals, I am amazed to see how God worked things out for me. In the Book of Mormon, Nephi also relied on the past in order to maintain his faith in the present:
1 Nephi 4:-1-2: “And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands? Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground, and the armies of Pharaoh did follow and were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea.”
Because he knew the scriptures, Nephi was able to draw strength from the story of Moses and the deliverance of the children of Isreal. Similarly, we can draw strength from stories in the scriptures, church history, family history, or even our own part. If God guided His children in the past, He will surely guide them today. If God guided me in the past, He will surely guide me in my current trials.
"Thy hope thy confidence let nothing shake; all now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know, His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below."
The reference in the hymn to "waves and winds" remind me of something I noticed in my reading of the New Testament. Several accounts in the NT tell of Jesus walking across the Sea of Galilee to reach his frightened apostles in the midst of a storm. In Mark 6:47-51, it says: “And when evening was come, the ship [of the disciples] was in the midst of the sea, and [Jesus] was alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea...He talked with them, and saith unto them, ‘Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.’ And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased...”
It’s so interesting to me that Jesus stood on the shore watching the disciples struggling and toiling before he intervened and calmed the storm. He was there all along, watching over them, but they didn’t know it. This has so many parallels to my life experiences and my frustration with years of infertility. Christ doesn’t always immediately calm my storms just because I want Him to. He often waits until the “fourth watch,” meaning that I often have to struggle and toil for a long time before He lightens my burdens. Nevertheless, He is always there, “on the shoreline,” watching over and protecting me in the midst of my storms.
