God Listens, Even When We Don't

Back to blogging about Conference. It's been too long already, and I don't want to fall behind again.

One big takeaway from Elder Juan A. Uceda's talk, The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Pray, is that God listens to us, even when we don't listen to Him. There are times when God warns us, sometimes repeatedly, either to do or not to do something, but we disregard the warning, get ourselves into trouble, and ask God to bail us out. And sometimes He does. I think that it's very generous of God to help us get out of trouble that He warned us not to get into.

Of course, it's best to heed God's warnings in the first place. Even with God's help, it's easier to walk around a pit than to climb out of one. Avoiding trouble is better than having to get help to get out of it, if only because it's less embarrassing. If God tells you not to do something, and you do it anyway, it can certainly feel awkward to ask for help in cleaning up the mess.

But we should still ask. Whenever we're in trouble, even when it's all our fault, we should always feel free to ask God to help us. God loves us. He always wants to help us, even when our problems are of our own making and we had to ignore several warning signs to make them. Of course, some of the help God gives us may be to let us struggle enough to learn from our mistakes, but in the end, when we really need Him, God will always be there for us, no matter why we need His help at that moment.

We never need to go through life alone. God will always come when we ask for His help, even when the reason we need His help is because we didn't listen to Him. Elder Uceda went on to say, in more elegant words, that God is not petty. He will never refuse to listen, even when we do, and He will always listen, even when we don't. I am grateful for a God who loves me enough to always at least listen to me, even when I foolishly fail or refuse to listen to Him.