“Let God Prevail”: Believing That the Lord Knows Your Struggles and Will Send His Miracles

After a long hard day during His mortal ministry, Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him on a ship and went into the mountains to pray. [1] Matthew records that the ship carrying the Savior’s Apostles “tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.” [2]

Sometime between 3 and 6 a.m., Jesus walked across the water to the ship. [3]

Peter, recognizing the Savior, called out to Him, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” [4]

And the Savior said, “Come.”

And Peter left the ship and walked on the water to go to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and he began to sink. He cried, saying, “Lord, save me.” [5]

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” [6]

In recent years I have thought often about this moment in the Savior’s ministry and about Peter. It had not even been one day since Jesus, learning of the death of John the Baptist, had departed by ship to a “desert place,” [7] only to be followed by the multitudes.

Peter had watched as Jesus had compassion on the masses, as He healed their sick and preached to them. Peter again witnessed the Savior multiply five loaves and fishes — allowing “five thousand men, beside women and children,” [8] all to eat and be filled.

And as the Savior approached the ship, Peter was the first to call out, begging to draw close to Him. Still, this dedicated and faithful disciple — who had spent the day observing Jesus Christ and His miracles — doubted.

We should all have the greatest empathy for Peter.

As Latter-day disciples we too have promised to follow the Savior. In the process, we have also witnessed His compassion and His miracles.

Yet there are moments when we doubt.

Like Peter, I have recently felt boisterous wind. The newspaper business declined and the work for which I have dedicated my life changed. My father died and my mother’s health declined. I watched as members of my family questioned faith, grappled with LGBTQ issues, and dealt with addiction, debilitating depression and other mental health issues.

I longed to understand the hard issues that were intersecting with my life.

One desperate night, I also doubted. But I did not ask, as did Peter, the Lord to “save me.” Instead, as I knelt, I asked my Heavenly Father something much more basic. “Do you see me?”

In October of 2020 — months after the COVID-19 pandemic had been wreaking havoc in nations across the globe and before a vaccine was available — President Russell M. Nelson asked each of us to “Let God Prevail” in our lives. [9]

Yet, this is an impossible task if we don’t truly believe that He sees us, is aware of our struggles and knows and understands the desires of our hearts.

Peter was the first Apostle ordained by the Savior. Jesus filled Peter’s nets with fishes. The scriptures describe Peter witnessing the Savior “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” [10]

Peter believed and testified — and would ultimately die — bearing witness of the Savior’s miracles for others. Yet, when the Savior invited him to come unto Him on the water, he did not exercise the same sure witness. And there on the sea after a long day, as “he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.” [11]

Like Peter, I too have been a witness of the rolling forth of the Lord’s Church on earth. As a reporter and editor for the Church News, I have watched prophets and apostles meet with members in large and small gatherings across the globe and have witnessed their personal interactions.

I have seen many modern miracles.

One such time came before a gathering of hundreds in a hotel ballroom in Vietnam in November of 2019.

President Nelson met with a group of young single adults, who were given the opportunity to ask the Prophet a few questions. With the questions complete and the meeting coming to a close, President Nelson paused and said he would take one more question. The room stilled as the young woman he selected next spoke about her experience with emotional and sexual abuse. “How can we know we are not to blame and worthy to follow God and that He will accept us when we do?” she questioned.

President Nelson spoke about the mortal experience. “We come to this earth for two purposes — to get a body and to be tested,” he said. “Everyone will have bad things happen to them. … What we become is how we handle the very hard things in life. The main thing is to develop faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ and know you will be talking to Them one day. …. With faith you can overcome. The Lord will say, ‘Well done.’”

After the gathering, President Nelson and his wife, Sister Wendy W. Nelson, walked straight to the young woman. President Nelson offered private counsel. Sister Nelson, a mental health counselor by profession, embraced her. “You were beautiful before the abuse,” she whispered. “You are beautiful after the abuse. It wasn’t your fault.” [12]

A sweet spirit filled the room. The young woman wept. I knew at that moment that I had witnessed a miracle — a healing of an ailment no less isolating or debilitating than leprosy was for those in the Savior’s day.

In his October 2020 General Conference address, President Nelson said the Lord is gathering those who will choose — who are willing — to let God prevail. He said the gospel net to gather scattered Israel is expansive. There is room for each person who will fully embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. He emphasized the word “willing.”

“Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?” [13]

I have a great testimony that God prevails. But as I heard President Nelson emphasize the word “willing,” I realized that while I believe in His miracles and grace for others, it is harder for me to glimpse the power this can and should have in my own life.

I suspect President Nelson knew this about me and others. Because at the end of his address, he invited all of us, during scripture study, to make a list of all that the Lord has promised He will do for covenant Israel. “I think you will be astounded,” he said.

“As you choose to let God prevail in your lives, you will experience for yourselves that our God is ‘a God of miracles.’” [14]

As I prayed to be willing to let God prevail in my life, I began to see miracles everywhere.

For example, just weeks after our oldest daughter, Elizabeth, returned from the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission in December of 2019, our family set out on a vacation. In the Salt Lake City International Airport, we noticed a young woman with a beautiful, tentative smile and sturdy shoes. She was standing in the busy terminal all alone.

Our daughters ran to the young woman and asked what they already knew: “Are you a missionary?”

They learned that she was traveling to the Guatemala Missionary Training Center as the only North American to join a group of central and South American missionaries. We also discovered that she would serve in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission — the very mission in which Elizabeth had been serving just two weeks earlier. This sister missionary, who had a layover in California on the way to Central America, was also on our flight. [15]

As we sat in the terminal awaiting our flight, my husband and I watched as our daughters talked with their new friend about missionary work and Honduras and their testimonies.

I was filled with a sweet knowledge of the Lord’s love for His children. My oldest daughter was desperately missing her mission and was now enthusiastically sharing her experiences. Our second daughter was eagerly awaiting her 19th birthday and the opportunity to serve herself. And our new missionary friend was no longer alone on the first step of her journey.

I should not have been surprised — but I was — that as we boarded the plane, we discovered that our new friend had a seat next to my daughter who had just returned from her very mission.

At the time, the Church had 67,000 missionaries serving in 399 missions [16] throughout the world, yet somehow, we had connected. It was a miracle.

Our family did not see this missionary again for three months. In March 2020 we glimpsed her in a picture on the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission Facebook page – standing at the airport with dozens of other missionaries who were returning home because of the pandemic.

It was not long before our daughters received an email from our missionary friend. “With everything happening with the Coronavirus, all of the missionaries from my mission are returning to their home countries …,” she wrote. “I am O, SO grateful for the three months I was able to have in Honduras, and I am heartbroken that I can’t stay there preaching the gospel. But I know that the Lord’s will is to have me serve somewhere else, and that I can still fulfill my purpose of helping others come unto Christ wherever I serve.” [17]

Our missionary friend knew how to let God prevail in her life. She knew the Lord was aware of her and she was willing to receive His miracles.

A short time later her example became very personal to us.

Our second daughter, Kathryn, entered the mission field as the pandemic was intensifying. Called to Brazil, she was reassigned in the Ohio Cincinnati Mission — where she served for eight glorious months. Then she embarked, all alone, on her own missionary journey to complete her service in the Brazil Fortaleza East Mission. Kathryn arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, on the morning of May 1, 2021. She called me while waiting to clear customs in one of the busiest airports in South America.

She asked what to do if she could not find her luggage. I listened as she spoke to an airline employee. She had studied Portuguese during home MTC before her reassignment. Now she tried to speak it after months without language training in Ohio. I do not speak Portuguese; still, I knew with certainty that what my daughter was speaking was not it.

I prayed with her and then, as she hung up the phone, fell to my knees and prayed again. She needed to find her luggage, get through customs, navigate the airport, change airlines and fly to Fortaleza.

The entire list felt overwhelming.

It wasn’t long, however, before I received a second, very short phone call. “It is going to be OK,” my daughter reported.

She had somehow found her luggage and cleared customs. Then, just as she entered the public area of the São Paulo airport, a Brazilian woman addressed her in English. “Sister, where is your companion?”

The woman was an employee from the Church’s area office. She helped my daughter navigate the airport and check in at a new airline, and walked with her to the security line in the terminal where she would catch her next flight. [18]

Their connection was a miracle.

My daughter’s travel to Brazil is one example of what happens when we let the Lord prevail in our lives — when we believe He is with us, that He directs our path, even when we do not see the path.

The Old Testament records that the children of Israel, bearing the ark of the covenant, “stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan” River. The Lord did not send His miracle and the waters did not part, however, until their feet were wet. [19]

Likewise, our daughter did not experience her miracle until she walked into the public area of the airport.

Often when I examine my doubts, I realize I have mis-ordered my belief. I want the miracle first and always promise the Lord my faith in return. But the Savior has given us a different pattern. Faith always precedes the miracle — we must first “choose to let God be the most important influence” in our lives before He will direct our paths. [20]

Early in my marriage, my husband was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. With our future uncertain, my faith faltered. I feared the Lord would not answer my prayers. I believed He could heal my husband’s lymphoma — but fearing He might not heal him — I stopped praying altogether. For weeks, I chose to separate myself from the Savior’s peace, watch care and saving power. My doubts and fears defined my faith.

Then early one morning in November, I hit a button on the radio station in the car and found Christmas music. I listened as the music testified of Jesus Christ and of the angelic celebrations accompanying His birth. I was filled with peace and comfort. There in the car, I spoke out loud to my Heavenly Father. He enveloped me in love. I was filled with the assurance that, regardless of the outcome of my husband’s health, things would be alright.

Groundbreaking treatment for my husband was a miracle for our family. A separate miracle, however, took place within me.

In contrast to the moments when I let my faith faulter, I have also witnessed what happens when, amid our doubts, we turn to God and not away from Him.

One such time occurred a few years ago in Colombia. A small group of teens were selected by their stake presidents to represent the youth of their country during a brief visit by President Nelson in August of 2019.

The youth received instruction and then waited for the prophet in the green room where a few of us from the media team covering President Nelson’s global ministry were unpacking our equipment. I do not speak Spanish, but as I listened to them talk, I could tell they were worried and anxious and filled with doubt. A colleague told me the youth questioned whether they were worthy to meet with the prophet.

Then, after turning my attention away from them for a few minutes, I looked back and saw them kneeling together and praying. I later learned they were asking for help to be calm and expressing gratitude to the Lord for His Church and His prophet.

At that time in Colombia’s capital city of 7.1 million people, the ratio of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the general population was 67 to one. Referencing the daunting statistic, President Nelson promised the youth, “Anything worthwhile in life is difficult to do. But you can do hard things as you link yourself to the Lord.” [21]

Linking ourselves to the Lord — knowing he sees us and that we can receive his miracles – is especially hard during times we walk unexpected or stormy paths.

In May of 2019, President Nelson spoke many times during his historic nine-day, seven-nation Pacific Ministry Tour. Many of you here today may have participated in those meetings. It was raining during much of that week, but before every devotional the rain stopped — until we visited Tonga. When the media team arrived at the outdoor stadium in Nuku’alofa, we found members who had been waiting in the rain for two hours to hear the prophet speak. Soon I was soaked, as were most of the 6,600 Latter-day Saints at the venue. “When is the Lord going to stop the rain?” I questioned.

Then President Nelson spoke. “You know what it is to be in deep water and rough water,” he told the Tongan members. “As you go through rough water and face challenges of life, hold on to the iron rod of the gospel.”

And then I had my answer.

Sometimes our faith stops the rain. Most often, however, our faith gives us the power to endure the storm.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who accompanied President Nelson in the Pacific, described the members’ “tremendous faith” at the devotional in Tonga. “They came prepared. They had fasted. They had prayed. They had gone to the temple. They wanted to be spiritually ready for what was coming.”

President Nelson spoke directly to them. “You are precious to us and to the Lord,” he said. “He has special feelings for His covenant people on the isles of the sea.” [22]

Just as I learned from the youth in Colombia and the members in Tonga, prayer is one way we can access the Lord’s miracles.

It is powerful to me that in November of 2020, amid those stormy times of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Nelson offered a prayer — a prayer of gratitude to the world and asked each of us to do the same. He asked us to #GiveThanks. In a message President Nelson posted on social media talking about that invitation, he said: “No matter who you are, you can pray to your Heavenly Father for guidance and direction in your life. If you learn to hear the Lord through His promptings, you may receive divine guidance in matters large and small.” [23]

We never know the impact we can have on others when we pray for guidance and direction.

My daughter has a friend from high school who only spent a few weeks in the MTC before returning home, facing health issues. I suspect this young man struggled to know how he could serve the Lord if he could not be a full-time missionary. But I don’t. After he returned from his mission, he found employment at the care center where my father spent his last days on earth. In those last weeks of my father’s life, I stayed many nights with him at the care center. One night at about 3 a.m. I found myself walking the halls of the nursing home and ran into this young man. We talked about my daughter and then he said he had noticed my care for my father. With 18-year-old words, he reminded me that I was seen by my Heavenly Father. After that sweet interaction, I started to watch him. There in the halls and rooms of the nursing home, he was representing the Savior Jesus Christ hour by hour, day by day, deed by deed. In every way, God prevails in the life of this young man.

His words to me during a lonely night in a quiet care center were a miracle.

Sometimes we all just want to know that we are seen by the Lord.

On the day that Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and fishes, His disciple Andrew, the brother of Peter, spoke about the multitude and the resources. “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” [24] he questioned.

Each of us, like that lad, have something to contribute to the Lord’s ministry. I love that, after expressing his thanks for the offering, Jesus allowed all to eat. All to be fed – both physically and spiritually. Miracles such as this still happen today.

On a dusty, hot day in 2014, I visited a camp for internally displaced people in northern Iraq. Located just miles from the borders of Syria and Turkey, the camp was filled with mostly Yazidis women and children driven from their homes and villages by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

In this camp the women had found shelter, water and a daily loaf of bread. Still, many had worn the same long white dresses since arriving in the camp; the dresses were a visual symbol of their deep religious identity and their Yazidis faith.

I felt an immediate connection to those women, who had suffered for their faith and refused to take off the dresses that represented their beliefs.

Their physical and emotional suffering was tremendous. One woman told me with the help of a translator that she wondered if she would be better off dead.

The same woman wept when a Muslim surgeon and a Latter-day Saint Charities volunteer presented her — and many other Yazidis women — with a new white dress. Fundamental to helping her through the crisis was learning where she came from and what she believed. She needed more than food, water and shelter to become whole. She needed her religion. And her God – and ours – saw her and sent a surgeon and a volunteer of different faith traditions to bring her a miracle. [25]

Those who feel accountable to God, honor Him by reaching out to His children.

President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency hangs a special painting in his office. It is called “The Forgotten Man.”

The painting depicts a man who’s down on his luck, sitting on a curb, his feet extending into the street. Behind him crowds of people are walking by, paying him no attention.

“And yet,” explained President Oaks, “you see the sun shining on his head. His Heavenly Father knows he’s there. He is forgotten by the passing crowd, but in his struggles, his Heavenly Father knows he’s there.”

I had the opportunity to observe President Oaks in 2022 in Rome, Italy, where he offered a keynote address at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit – and demonstrated that sometimes God uses His children to show others that they are seen.

For example, when President Oaks was asked to offer a blessing on the food during a luncheon at the Catholic-sponsored symposium, he included portions of the Lord’s Prayer in his beautiful heavenly petition — a sweet and powerful acknowledgment of the sponsoring organization and its many members in the room. [26]

For me, the prayer was a miracle – a reflection of President Oaks’ constant consciousness to make sure that no one is “forgotten” in his path and of his testimony that even in our struggles, our “Heavenly Father knows we all are there.”

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in a BYU devotional in January of 2021 that he is occasionally asked why Latter-day Saints don’t experience the types of miracles that defined the early days of the Restoration. He said his reply is always the same. “We do!” [27]

Speaking in Thailand in 2018, President Jeffrey R. Holland, now acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “We are sometimes so close to history, so close to miracles . . . that we don’t realize we are experiencing a miracle.” [28]

President Nelson said during his April 2022 general conference address that we can not only seek but also expect miracles. “Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in Him,” he said. “He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord. In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, ‘doubting nothing.’” [29]

In 2020, I had the opportunity to observe Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles record a talk that was broadcast as part of a symposium on religious freedom. Elder Soares’ native language is Portuguese. He also speaks Spanish, French and English. On this day, he expressed concern that he would be able to pronounce the technical and legal words of his talk, which he was delivering in English. When he offered a prayer before the taping, I expected him to ask the Lord for help with English pronunciation. Instead, with faith that was tangible, he prayed for something much more important — “courage to represent the Church well.” [30]

President Nelson said it takes both faith and courage to let God prevail in our lives. It takes “persistent, rigorous spiritual work ... and consistent, daily effort to ... seek and respond to personal revelation.” [31]

It means not only believing that the Lord performs miracles for others, but that he performs miracles for you and for me. It means knowing that he sees each of us and that He will save us.

In October of 2018, President Nelson traveled to South America, where he met with the president of Peru. Then, just as he had done in Colombia, he gathered with a small group of young men and young women before addressing almost 6,000 in a member devotional broadcast throughout the country. [32]

When he asked for questions one brave young woman spoke up: “What do I do if I am the only member in my family?” she said.

Her question was filled with doubt — about her status in the Lord’s kingdom and her ability to move forward without the same level of religious support many youth her age enjoy.

But President Nelson did not hesitate. He looked her in the eyes and said, “You and I are just alike.”

At first, I didn’t understand what President Nelson meant by that response. He is a world-renowned heart surgeon in his 90s who had just met with the president of Peru. She was a young girl, wondering if she was seen by the Lord.

President Nelson spoke of his own youth, where he was the only active member of the Church in his family. He asked the young woman to let God prevail in her life. “Your family and your friends will see the light of the gospel reflected in you,” he said. [33]

After the Savior’s death, Peter went to the Sea of Tiberias with other disciples. They fished through the night and caught nothing. When the morning came, Jesus stood on the shore and again filled his disciples’ nets with fishes.

When Peter realized it was the Lord, he “did cast himself into the sea” [34] — responding immediately, as he always did, to draw near to the Savior. The Savior gives him direction, repeated three times, that defined the remainder of his mortal life. “Feed my sheep.” [35]

Service is one way we can let God prevail.

In January of 2019, I witnessed President Nelson’s visit to Paradise, California, after a devastating fire claimed more than 18,000 structures. The town was reduced to ashes. Yet, just before President Nelson was scheduled to leave for Paradise, his daughter lost her battle with cancer. We were not sure he would make the trip. But after spending time with his family, he and Sister Nelson boarded a plane.

When I had the opportunity to ask him one question during the trip, I simply said, “Why did you come.” President Nelson’s response was beautiful in its simplicity. “We mourn the loss of our second daughter,” he said. “Fathers can’t [lose a child] without feeling a deep sense of grief. And yet there is nothing we would rather do than to try to be of help to others.” [36]

To this day it is hard for me to describe the devotional where he comforted members who lost their homes and businesses and community. They were desperate for hope and President Nelson promised them peace. “Your hope, your joy, and your future will all be shaped by your faith in God and by your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

After his address, as President Nelson walked down the aisle of the stake center, a 12-year-old girl waited to shake his hand. However, just before he reached her, she was jostled out of the way by other eager members. She expressed her lament and her doubt as she cried to her mother a few minutes later in the foyer. “That always happens to me,” she said. The young woman’s family waited outside the meetinghouse with a crowd of other members to wave goodbye to President Nelson. The Prophet walked through the crowd to his car. But — just as he did in Vietnam — he paused, singled her out of the crowd and sent a member of Church security to bring her to him. [37]

It was a miracle. The God who prevails had connected a Prophet mourning his daughter and a daughter eager to be seen.

Hawaii recently faced a disaster — like the fire that claimed Paradise — in Lahaina, Maui. Talking about moving forward in the months after the fire destroyed her home and community, one survivor said: “If you look for it, you can see God’s hands everywhere.” [38]

The lesson from this faithful sister is powerful: we won’t see the Lord’s miracles unless we are searching for them. This seeking is one way to overcome doubt.

Peter’s doubts are detailed in the New Testament. The scriptures also illustrate that he overcame them, let God prevail in his life, and was made strong by his faith in Jesus Christ.

The Lord chose Peter to hold the keys of His kingdom on earth and directed Peter to open the gospel to the Gentiles. And in the latter days Peter, James and John conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. [39]

We too can receive all that the Lord has in store for us — even as the wind is contrary — as we exercise faith and courage and let God prevail.

It is my prayer that amid our greatest doubts, we will cry unto the Lord and believe that He will see us and will save us.

I leave with you my testimony of Him and of His earthly ministry and of His Church, restored by the prophet Joseph Smith and led today by a living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.

I say these things in His name, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.