Valiant in our Testimony of the Savior- Elder Christoffel Golden
“Satan wants us to fail to reach that mountaintop that will allow us to develop a testimony so powerful that he will be unable to influence us. His work is to thwart our efforts, but the Lord has counseled us, “Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.”
I am a 38-year old college student. I have the wonderful opportunity to participate in the Pathway program through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and BYU-Idaho. Through this opportunity I have had the chance to take two religion classes so far. This semester our class is entitled, “Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel.” I have felt like a little kid again who is learning new things for the first time. As I am learning how to search, ponder and pray in an adult manner, my mind has opened and my testimony of the Savior has been steadily increasing. As I have turned to God in humble prayer before each study session, I feel like my tired mom brain has been re-charged and I am grasping scriptures and concepts that I have not been able to grasp before. Line upon line, and piece by piece, my testimony is stretching and growing. It’s a wonderful feeling.
In our lesson last week which was all about Heavenly Father’s plan, something that we studied about our pre-mortal life lit my brain on fire and I have not been able to stop thinking about it.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;” -Revelation 12:11
We participated in a war in heaven–a war between the forces of good and evil– and through the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our precious testimonies of Him, we were able to defeat Satan and his followers. Think about that for a moment. The Atonement had not even happened yet. It was years upon years away from happening and yet, it was powerful enough to work retroactively and give us the strength that we needed to overcome Satan. But not only did we rely on the strength from the Atonement, we also were given power from the word of our testimonies.
Here is something else to think about.
In order for us to have so much strength from our testimonies in the pre-mortal world, I can only assume that what that means is that we were valiant in those testimonies. We were valiant in the testimony of the power of something that had not even happened yet–the Atonement.
This leads me to wonder, if I was valiant in my testimony there, can I be valiant here as well? The answer is, YES! Yes, I can! It’s the same war, the same villain, the same fight between good and evil. The difference is, I cannot remember that first war and that first estate, so it makes it difficult to remember how powerful I felt there. But I can rely on faith, just like I did there. I had faith in the Atonement before it was ever made and I can have that same faith in the Atonement and it’s power even though I was not there to witness it. I can be powerful to overcome Satan and so can you.
I grew up the oldest of 5 children in the blazing heat of Southern Utah. After high school and some college experience I met and married Mark Ogden and we are the parents of four children. I have owned and operated my own home-based preschool for more than a dozen years, and I consider myself an accidental author as well. When I am not in my minivan transporting children from one activity to the next, I enjoy playing the piano, blogging, speaking about my life’s experiences, and feeding my insatiable crafting disease.
I love that you point out, “It’s the same war, the same villain, the same fight between good and evil. ” SO true!!! Your testimony consistently shines Desirae.