Neil L Andersen Quotes

The wisdom of the world, while in many cases very valuable, is most valuable when it humbly bows to the wisdom of God.

Fear and faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time.

The Lord will make much more out of your life than you can by yourself. He will increase your opportunities, expand your vision, and strengthen you. He will give you the help you need to meet your trials and challenges. You will … come to know your Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, and feel Their love for you.

Jesus’s call “Come, follow me” is not only for those prepared to compete in a spiritual Olympics. In fact, discipleship is not a competition at all but an invitation to all. Our journey of discipleship is not a dash around the track, nor is it fully comparable to a lengthy marathon. In truth, it is a lifelong migration toward a more celestial world.

If we can educate our desires in the right way, we will become ‘what we want to become and what our Father in Heaven would want us to become. It begins by careful contemplation of who we are and what we want in life.

Elder David A. Bednar speaks of dispelling and hushing our fears. Hushing our fears implies that they may not be totally eliminated, but they can be quieted and controlled. “Fear is dispelled through a correct knowledge of and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Correct knowledge of and faith in the Lord empower us to hush our fears because Jesus Christ is the only source of enduring peace. He declared, ‘Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me

If you find yourself making the same mistakes, struggling to be firm in your desire to change, express to your Heavenly Father your love for Him and strengthen your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Learn of Him, study about His sacred Atonement, and think deeply about what He suffered for you. Keep His commandments with more exactness. As you do your part to build your faith in the Savior, I promise you that heaven will compound this gift of faith, and you will have the spiritual strength to repent of your sins and not return to them.

I have come to understand that before choices, come our desires. Our desires influence our choices… Because many of our thoughts are private, protected, and hidden from view, our actions for a time may not always reflect our inner desires. However, eventually, our inner desires are given life and they are seen in our choices and in our actions.

Faith is multidimensional; it has depth and breadth. Your faith is growing or diminishing. Faith grows and strengthens within us as we desire to believe, as we ponder the word of God, as we increase the sincerity and frequency of our prayers, as we repent and keep the commandments, and as we experience the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.

Developing spiritual strength doesn’t come from leaning back; it comes from pressing forward, constantly seeking more light and knowledge from heaven.” In my undergraduate days, I memorized this saying: ‘On the plains of hesitation are bleached the bones of countless thousands who, at the Dawn of Victory, stopped to rest, and resting, died.’ We cannot rest. Learn, lead, build, press forward.

I always cringe when I hear people say something like “I know such-and-such through science or reason, but the rest I’ll have to take on faith.” This statement suggests that faith is not about evidence—after all of the evidence is gathered and found wanting, then a person turns reluctantly to something called “faith” to patch the holes. Elder Neil L. Andersen explained that faith “is not something ethereal, floating loosely in the air.” Instead, our scriptures teach “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1; emphasis added). Joseph Smith changed the word “substance” to “assurance” in his inspired translation, and the underlying Greek word, hypostasis, may also be translated as “confidence.” “Assurance comes in ways that aren’t always easy to analyze,” Sharon Eubank observed, “but there is light in our darkness.” Thus, faith is not the absence of certitude, positive thinking, or a weak foundation of flimsy evidence. To have faith, Alma taught, means to “hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21). Anne C. Pingree described it as a “spiritual ability to be persuaded of promises that are seen ‘afar off.’”6 Faith develops through our relationship with God our Father, by His communications with us through the Holy Ghost. Faith is a type of evidence that can be strengthened by observations, reports, and inferences, but it also exists independent of them.

The Prophet Joseph Smith warned us to ‘beware of self-righteousness’ and to enlarge our hearts toward all men and women until we feel ‘to take them upon our shoulders.

Honesty, integrity, and truth are eternal principles that significantly shape our experience in mortality and help determine our eternal destiny.