When Does the Holy Ghost Help You?

Elder Gary E. Stevenson titled his April 2017 General Conference talk after a question he heard in a Family Home Evening lesson and has pondered many times since: "How Does the Holy Ghost Help You?" Tonight, I would like to ask a similar question: "When does the Holy Ghost help you?"

The answer can be "always," or "nearly always." Those of us who have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by having been baptised and confirmed members of the LDS church have been promised that we can have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. However, that doesn't mean that He will always help us. At least, not in the ways that we might want Him to. For example, the Holy Ghost might bless us with the patience to endure our problems even when what we really want is advice for how to solve them. Still, whether the help He gives us is the help we wanted or not, He can still be a near-constant helper in our lives.

Yet, that blessing (as well as many others) is usually contingent on our asking for them. The Holy Ghost is more likely to help us if and when we remember to ask Him to. And if we would like to have His continued help, it would also help if we thanked Him for His help and continually strived to stay worthy of it.

However, that is not to say that the Holy Ghost never helps the unworthy, ungrateful people who haven't asked for help. He often, out of the goodness of His heart, reaches out to others to give them a hug, a pat on the back, a shoulder to cry on, and/or a nudge in the right direction. Countless lives have been changed for the better thanks to the undeserved help of the Holy Ghost.

I am deeply thankful that the Holy Ghost is such a present source of help in our lives. In writing this blog post, I reflected on the fact that I didn't feel like the Holy Ghost had really helped me with anything today, but I also remembered that I hadn't asked Him to. I'm going to try to remember to do that more often. In fact, perhaps I ought to ask the Holy Ghost to bless with the wisdom (and perhaps a few reminders) to ask for His help more often.