Increase your strength through prayer

Let us pray for health and strength and wisdom.  Pray for faith to carry on when our strength seems insufficient, and the answer is delayed.  Let our prayers go out as well as upward.  We must work as well as pray.  Let us pray for peace and concord, in our hearts, our homes, and country... Prayer will rid our hearts of hatred; it will chasten our ambitions... Let us pray.  (Hugh B. Brown, Eternal Quest, 1956, p 81)

Can any good thing...

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?... John 1: 46  How often do we judge by generalizations instead of by taking the time to stop and think, to ponder, to learn for ourselves?  Are we doing ourselves a disservice?  Nathanael went to see if any good thing could come out of Nazareth and he met the Son of God who greeted him by saying, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." (John 1: 47) and was promised for his open mindedness and belief that "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." (John 1: 51).

He is always there

Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers.  He does hear us.  He does see us.  He does love us.  When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry, "Where art thou?" it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us--where He has always been!  We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there.  Our prayers are heard.  And when we weep He and the angels of heaven weep with us.  (Elder Jeffrey R Holland, Lessons from Liberty Jail, Ensign, Sep 09, 29)

We are not the same

God is the same yesterday, today and forever, but we are not.  Each day, ours is the challenge to access the power of the Atonement so that we can truly change, become more Christlike, and qualify for the gift of exaltation and live eternally with God, Jesus Christ, and our families. (Elder Russell M Nelson, General Conference, Thanks Be to God, April 2012)

Stones

In a world of accusations and unfriendliness, it is easy to gather and cast stones.  But before we do so, let us remember the words of the One who is our Master and model: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone."  Brothers and sisters, let us put down our stones.  Let us be kind.  Let us forgive.  Let us talk peacefully with each other.  Let the love of God fill our hearts.  Let us do good unto all men. (President Dieter F Uchtodorf, General Conference, The Merciful Obtain Mercy, April 2012)

An antidote for weariness

The companionship of the spirit of the Lord is an antidote for weariness... for fear and all those things that sometimes overtake us in life.  (President George Albert Smith, General Conference Report, October 1945, 115-16)

Concern for the one

Jesus Christ is our greatest example.  He was surrounded by multitudes and spoke to thousands, yet He always had concern for the one.  (Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, General Conference, April 2008)

We always have help

In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil and you must never forget that.  When disappointment and discouragement strike--and they will--you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection (see 2 Kings 6: 16-17).  They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham's seed.  (Jeffrey R. Holland, "For Times of Trouble," New Era, Oct 1980, p 15)

Secret to Happiness

The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first-wanting to be the center-wanting to be God, in fact.  That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race... What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could "be like gods"-could set up on their own as if they had created themselves-be their own masters-invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.  And out of that hopeless attempt has come... the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.  (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 49)