At the BYU-Idaho devotional meeting on Tuesday, March 10, in Rexburg, Idaho, General Authority Seventy Elder Clement M. Matswagotata said that regardless of your faith, clinging to your faith in Jesus Christ will help you overcome doubts and doubts.
Elder Matswagotata shared his experiences, teachings, and testimonies about overcoming doubts and doubts while continuing to build in faith.
He also emphasized the importance of building one’s faith and accepting questions and doubts to the Lord. If we patiently follow the Lord’s timing, these questions will be answered because “God is not silent.”
“Don’t let one unanswered question cancel out 100 answered prayers,” Elder Matswagotata said. “Keep walking with Christ” during difficult times.
“Does God still speak?”
Elder Matswagotata grew up in Botswana where heaven “often felt close.”
Although Elder Matswagotata was not born into the church, his family has always been dedicated to the Lord. Through their steadfast faith, he learned his own faith.
With this conviction, Elder Matswagotata sought to deepen his knowledge of God. After reading a Bible passage about a prophet speaking to his people, he wondered, “Does God still speak?”
The interrogation led to an emergency search and a dispute with religious leaders about his personal beliefs. But his faith was not won through words. “I always walked away feeling empty inside,” he recalled.
Elder Matswagotata had been warned about meeting with missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he felt he had an opportunity.
“I asked them the same question I have asked many others in the past: ‘Do you believe in a God who speaks as He spoke to Adam, Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, and my favorite prophet, Samuel?’
The missionaries then shared the experience of another boy, Joseph Smith, who had the same question.
Elder Matswagotata received a “convincing and convincing personal testimony” that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the young man Joseph Smith and called him to be a prophet.
Learning by the Holy Spirit
Elder Matswagotata explained that a testimony is “spiritual knowledge implanted in a person’s heart and mind by God” and is not complete knowledge.
“The Lord never required omniscience as the price of discipleship,” he said.
Jesus assured his wondering disciples that “faith and doubt can coexist,” but that “certain stages of faith” are still necessary.
The real enemy to faith in Christ, Elder Matswagotata said, is not doubt, but “drifting.”
He said people slow to take their eyes off the Savior when they decide to “skip once, then twice, then often. Eventually, things that used to feel normal and natural, like praying every day or searching the scriptures, start to feel far away.”
To counter drift, the covenants “keep us united to Jesus Christ” even in times of spiritual turmoil.
Elder Matsuwagotata then shared an experience that tested his faith.
As a missionary, he met a man who pointed out Elder Matswagotata’s African descent and pressed him about the church’s restrictions on priesthood and temple blessings. He had never heard of that restriction before.
“Everything I knew about God, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the witness of the Holy Spirit suddenly felt confusing,” he said.
Seeking comfort, Elder Matswagotata met with his mission president, who encouraged him to return and testify about the man. He did.
At that moment, she said, quoting Philippians 4:7, “I felt the security of the Lord filling me from head to toe with ‘peace that passes all understanding.'”
This experience taught him not to let strangers “blot out what the Holy Spirit has already taught us.”
establish faith
“The enemy always asks questions faster than we can answer them,” Elder Matswagotata said.
“A resilient testimony is not built by collecting perfect answers; it is built by remaining with Christ through study, prayer, and faith-based action and allowing Him to teach according to His will and timing.”
Elder Matsuwagotata offered three “anchors” of faith in Christ.
First, stay close to your Savior.
Second, stay grounded in truth by seeking it from “authoritative sources” such as the teachings of living prophets and apostles and the scriptures.
And third, be with the Spirit by choosing “music, media, friendships, and habits that invite the Spirit to be with you.”
Elder Matswagotata quoted Jesus’ words from John 6. When Jesus taught “harsh words,” many of his disciples left.
Jesus asked the 12 apostles, “Are you going away too?”
“Everyone is faced with the question, ‘Are you leaving too?’ Moment. How would you answer?” Elder Matswagotata asked.
God’s work will advance on a global and personal level.
“Here I stand as a simple man from the continent of Africa, testifying to eternal truths and watching inspired prophecies unfold.”
