Let Go and Let God

We were driving down the street yesterday and we saw a license plate that said, "LGO&LG."
My companion said something about what the license plate might stand for and I thought she said, "Let Go and Let God."
Good thought, huh?
Let go and let God.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, in a talk entitled "As Many As I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten" given in April 2011 said, "God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us."
Sometimes we feel that things are out of our control. We feel lost and confused as we go through trials and tribulations - fires - that the Lord allows to continue even though our pleas may be otherwise. Yet we may come to know through these trials that the Lord is aware of us and our prayers. He does love us and that is the very reason He is allowing us to struggle and to learn to rely even more fully on Him.
'Francis Webster, a member of the Martin Company, stated, “Everyone of us came through [our trials] with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.”'
("A Priceless Heritage", http://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/07/a-priceless-heritage?lang=eng)

There was one night in particular when I felt completely and utterly lost and alone. I felt unneeded, unnecessary and like a complete failure. I was depressed, afraid, and wanted little more than to be encircled in the arms of my mom and dad. How many of us haven't felt that before?
I remember, very vividly, standing in front of the bathroom mirror while I was brushing my teeth, trying not to cry. I was praying fervently and earnestly for peace. That was all I wanted: peace. I had been praying all day long in my mind and heart and especially throughout that evening.
As I prayed, suddenly a line from a song swooped into my mind. The only piece of the song that I could remember was, "When through the deep waters I call thee to go..." I could hum the tune and sing the words but as soon as I got to the end of that line my mind went absolutely blank. It was like a black sheet had been dropped over the rest of the song. I couldn't remember anything about it except that it was a hymn.
That irked me like nobody's business but I was going to be late for bed if I stayed up to try and find it. So, singing that one line repeatedly and somewhat resigned to the fact that I was just going to have to wait to solve this mystery, I knelt down next to my bed and began to pray.
I had scarcely begun to pray when the Spirit came into my mind and the whispering thought that I had previously had, (to go and find the song who's line was running through my head), turned into a shout.
"Ok! Oh my word! Sorry!" I grumbled a bit about how I was going to be late to bed but I obeyed.
I booked it into the front room and stole my companion's hymn book which was sitting on her desk. I didn't really know what I was looking for but as I flipped open the hymn book, it opened to #85 "How Firm A Foundation." Immediately, the first line of the fourth verse caught my eye: "When through the deep waters I call thee to go..."

But it continued:

4. When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, thy dross to consume,
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

I sat there on the cold hardwood floor and sobbed. The Lord had called me to go through these things but I would not be overwhelmed, He would be with me, my trials would be sanctified to me, and one of the reasons that I was being allowed to go through this was so that I would become sanctified and refined.

The scripture that I memorized yesterday is in the Book of Revelation 3:18,19.
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire..."

The best gold, the gold (the people) that the Lord will use to build His kingdom has been and will be refined.

The verse continues, "...that thou mayst be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed...and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent."

The Lord will guide and strengthen us throughout our time on this earth. We need to let go of our fears, our pride, our desire to always be right, and allow Him to take our trials and tribulations and sanctify them to us.
As we continue through this mortal, probationary state, let us always remember that "[He] will be with [us, our] troubles to bless" for His grace is sufficient to all those who will humble themselves before Him.