Tips for Withstanding Whirlwinds

The person who will be teaching in Elder's Quorum today asked me if I would share a brief message about how I prepare to withstand spiritual whirlwinds. The term "spiritual whirlwinds" refers to Elder Neil L. Andresen's talk, Spiritual Whirlwinds, in which he said,

More concerning than the prophesied earthquakes and wars are the spiritual whirlwinds that can uproot you from your spiritual foundations... 

The worst whirlwinds are the temptations of the adversary.

Thinking of spiritual whirlwinds this way, it seems to me that the best way to withstand such whirlwinds is to be firmly rooted on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.
Helaman 5:12

But that's just a generic, Sunday-school answer. If the teacher wants to hear specifically how I keep myself rooted on the gospel of Christ and withstand spiritual whirlwinds, I'll tell them that I do it mostly by praying for God's help to be able to do it.

Satan's temptations are subtle, sometimes too subtle to detect, and they're strong, sometimes seeming to be too strong to resist. For the wisdom to recognize the devil's temptations and for the moral strength to resist them, I often need God's help, and to get God's help, you often need to pray for it.

Another thing I do to keep myself firmly anchored to the gospel of Jesus Christ is to occasionally review the basics of the gospel. I ask myself questions like "Why is faith important?" "How does faith lead to obedience and repentance?" "What makes repentance and forgiveness so awesome?" and "How do these basic steps help me progress toward my ultimate goal of moral perfection?" It's funny how small and simple questions can lead to big, important answers. And it's funny how having a strong testimony in the basics of the gospel can help a person more than having a vague understanding of the deeper points of doctrine. Perhaps I should devote more of my study time to revisiting the basics instead of looking for new insightful quotes to share or reporting on how my piano practice is going.

Basically, that request I got to share my thoughts on how to firmly root yourself to the gospel has reminded me of how important it is for me to make sure I'm firmly rooted. I haven't reviewed the basics in a while. Maybe it's time to revisit them.