TRUST IN THE LORD AND LEAN NOT 3️⃣

Proverbs 3:5-6
THREE WAYS TO INCREASE OUR KNOWLEDGE OF AND TRUST IN THE SAVIOR.

1️⃣First, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”
When the devil tempted Jesus in the desert he came to him with the scriptures. We need to read more scriptures! More scriptures enlighten our minds, nourish our spirits, answer our questions, increase our trust in the Lord, and help us center our lives on Him. “Remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby.”

2️⃣Second, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him through PRAYER. What a blessing to be able to pray to our God! “Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart.”
I have a sweet memory of a prayer that I treasure. For one of my life bitter experiences, I accepted to give my life to Christ. I had come from South Africa back home in Kenya using the road,life had become  hopeless and I was very depressed and thoughts of suicide screamed so loud in my head, I decided to go and ask for a job or any form of help from an office I had done some of their projects in the past, I explained myself to the receptionist but  the office department that was to work on my case was out for a meeting.After a few minutes of insisting she  forwarded my case to the  Executive Chief Manager whom first question  was, "son are you born again?"Her question made me recover from a sleep(lean) I was in for an year.
I gave her the go ahead to help me start a new journey of salvation and she said, “Let’s say a prayer of repentance and coming back into the kingdom of Christ before you leave.”
After the repentance and salavation prayer. She pleaded with Heavenly Father for my safety. She prayed for my peace,joy,a job and for my education asking that the angels to be with me throughout the  struggles. She prayed and prayed and prayed.
The peace that came from that prayer gave me the courage to trust in the Lord and lean not to my own understanding. The Lord directed my path in the many decisions I made during that challenge I was in and I got a well paying job and also went back to school miraculously.
As we make a habit of approaching Heavenly Father in prayer, we will come to know the Savior. We will come to trust Him. Our desires will become more like His. We will be able to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that Heavenly Father is ready to give if we will but ask in faith.
PRAY AND PRAY DO NOT GIVE UP

3️⃣Third, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we serve others. I share the following story with permission from Amy Wright, who came to understand the principle of serving even amid a terrifying and life-threatening illness. Amy wrote:
“On October 29, 2015, I found out I had cancer. My cancer has a 17 percent survival rate. The odds weren’t good. I knew that I would be in for the fight of my life. I was determined to give it everything I had not just for myself but, more important, for my family. In December, I began chemo. I was familiar with many of the side effects of cancer-fighting drugs, but I did not know that it was possible for someone to be so sick and still be alive.
“At one point, I declared chemotherapy a human rights violation. I told my husband that I was done. I quit! I was not going back to the hospital. In his wisdom, my sweetheart patiently listened and then responded, ‘Well, then we need to find someone to serve.’”
What? Did he miss the fact that his wife had cancer and couldn’t take one more bout of nausea or one more moment of excruciating pain?
Amy goes on to explain: “My symptoms gradually worsened to where I generally had one or two ‘OK’ days a month [when] I could somewhat function as a living, breathing human being. It was those days when our family would find ways to serve.”
On one of those days, Amy’s family distributed chemo comfort kits to other patients, kits filled with items to cheer and to help relieve symptoms. When Amy couldn’t sleep, she would think of ways to brighten someone else’s day. Some ways were big, but many were just small notes or text messages of encouragement and love. On those nights when her pain was too great to sleep, she would lie in bed with her iPad and search for ordinances that needed to be completed on behalf of her deceased ancestors. Miraculously the pain would subside, and she was able to endure.
“Service,” Amy testifies, “saved my life. Where I ultimately found my strength to keep moving forward was the happiness I discovered in trying to relieve the suffering of those around me. I looked forward to our service projects with great joy and anticipation. Still to this day it seems like such a strange paradox. You would think that someone who was bald, poisoned, and fighting for [her] life was justified in thinking that ‘right now it is all about me.’ However, when I thought about myself, my situation, my suffering and pain, the world became very dark and depressing. When my focus turned to others, there was light, hope, strength, courage, and joy. I know that this is possible because of the sustaining, healing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
Amy came to trust in the Lord as she came to know Him. If she had leaned even a little to her own understanding, she might have rejected the idea that she serve. Service enabled her to withstand her pain and afflictions and to live this scripture: “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”