[T]rue hope focuses us on the great realities-”things as they really are”-and frees us from unneeded anxiety, but not from the necessity of patient endurance. When we are down and discouraged, the hope of Christ can lift us up lest we remain vulnerable overlong. The brisk pace of Church service also helps us focus talent and time outwardly rather than being left alone for long with our moods. Duties knocking at one’s door are like friends come to call not always convenient but usually gladdening in their effect. Our hope rests upon a dependable expectation. Let others, if they choose, define theological hope as a mere wish or an awaiting. Hope includes, in fact, these more passive ingredients. But it is so much more than wishful musing. It stiffens, not slackens, the spine. It is anticipation that turns into day-by-day determination. It is an eager and an enthusiastic expectation based upon a dependable and justifiable object of hope, the triumph of the resurrection-generating Lord Jesus Christ. It is this hope, and this hope alone, that permits us to “endure well” to the end-knowing that the end is but a glorious beginning! It is this same hope that is such a vital and helping virtue when we must “continue the journey” notwithstanding our weaknesses.
We are, therefore, grounded in the grand hope that the gospel provides. Our tactical hopes, however, are sometimes another matter. We may, for instance, hope to become a doctor or for a certain dating opportunity-outcomes that may not occur in spite of our best efforts. Our hopes of the latter kind, like our prayers, may or may not be granted. If they are not right for us, they may be withheld. If such hopes are subject to the agency of others, and so many are, they may not be realized. But our hopes for the things that really matter will not be blasted by men or circumstance.
If, however, we have this precise and basic hope, insofar as such strategic things as immortality and individuality are concerned, then the spirit of hopefulness will pervade our lives, giving to us a quality of life that is characterized by hopefulness. Real hope also gives us a tactical toughness that befits those who have ultimate hope. Job knew that “my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” (Job 19:25.) Job’s hopes did not focus on next year’s crops!
If we have this kind of ultimate hope, there is no room for proximate despair. If the big things that really matter are finally going to work out in eternity, then the little things that go wrong mortally are not cause for desperation but perhaps only for a little frustration and irritation.
Ultimate hope and daily grumpiness are clearly not reconcilable.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Notwithstanding My Weakness
Deseret Book Company, 1981
Regarding trials, including of our faith and patience, there are no exemptions—only variations (see Mosiah 23:21). These calisthenics are designed to increase our capacity for happiness and service. Yet the faithful will not be totally immune from the events on this planet. Thus the courageous attitudes of imperiled Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are worthy of emulation. They knew that God could rescue them. “But if not,” they vowed, they would still serve God anyway (see Daniel 3:16–18). Similarly, keeping the unfashionable but imperative first and seventh commandments can reflect the courage which three young women displayed anciently; they said no with their lives (see Abraham 1:11).
Therefore, we can be troubled on every side, but nothing can really separate us from the love of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 4:8; Romans 8:35–39); worldly anxieties are not part of being “anxiously engaged” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27). Even so, as Peter urged, we can and should cast our cares upon the Lord, because He surely cares for us! (see 1 Peter 5:7). Oh, brothers and sisters, the awaiting emancipation of such trusting surrender!
As to remedying our personal mistakes, we face no hindering traffic jams on the road of repentance. It is a toll road, not a freeway, and applying Christ’s Atonement will speed us along.
There may need to be plain-speaking Jethros in our lives to stretch us (see Exodus 18:14–24) or moments of stark realization, as with the original Twelve, who rightly concluded: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
Besides, unless we are filled with resolve, what will we say to the heroes and heroines of Martin’s Cove and the Sweetwater? That “we admire you, but we are reluctant to wade through our own rivers of chilling adversity”?
Brothers and sisters, by divine appointment, “these are [our] days” (Helaman 7:9), since “all things must come to pass in their time” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:32). Moreover, though we live in a failing world, we have not been sent here to fail.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
“Encircled in the Arms of His Love,” Ensign, Nov 2002, 16
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled,” said Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:6.) A corollary we add from our research is that they who hunger and thirst after anything but righteousness, which is a closeness and similarity to God, never achieve a satiety of the soul nor any lasting fulness at all. In the scriptures, the word joy very often appears in the same sentence with the words full, filled, or fulness. In many of these instances, the “fulness of joy” is mentioned after an individual has experienced terrible isolation and then put forth a tremendous effort to reach out to God and to the people around him. Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah, after experiencing “the darkest abyss,” decided that they “could not bear that any human soul should perish” in a similar condition. (Mosiah 27:29; 28:3.) They therefore embarked on a very difficult mission to the Lamanites. When the five met again, after “suffering all manner of afflictions,” Ammon, one of Mosiah’s sons, discussed his feelings in connection with his experiences: “Behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. . . . Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great a reason to rejoice as we, since the world began.” (Alma 26:11, 35.) The joy felt by Ammon and his friends sent them back into the mission field, where they performed some of the most impressive works and preached some of the greatest sermons ever recorded. They had reached out of the isolation of sin to serve others, and they seemed to gain more capacity to be filled with joy as they poured themselves out to God and his children in a seemingly endless flood of love.
One reason Alma and the sons of Mosiah were so able to experience great joy was precisely that they had “suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever.” (Mosiah 28:4.) The fact that “there is an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11) creates a special form of justice in that it ensures that those who have felt deep anguish also possess the capacity to feel great rejoicing. The horror of the abyss carves out more space for joy, as long as the response to the yearning is not to pull things into one’s self but to give things of the self away to others. No one ever encountered more isolation and darkness than Christ did at His atonement, and His response to that moment of the greatest possible need was to give the greatest possible gift. Like Ammon, who met again with his friend and brothers after a painful and difficult attempt to save souls, Christ spent the period immediately after His mortal mission meeting and talking with people who loved Him. The account of Christ’s visit to the righteous part of the Nephites after the great destruction that accompanied His crucifixion hints that Jesus was affected by His experiences much as Alma and the sons of Mosiah were affected by theirs. After Christ told the Nephites about Himself and His doctrine, “it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.
“And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.
“And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.
“And when he had done this he wept again.” (3 Nephi 17:19-22.)
The joy that emanated through and from the Lord, almost immediately after His having been so utterly forsaken during the time He had borne our sins, was “full” to the point that it overflowed in prayer, in expressions of tenderness and service to His people, and in tears. What a marvelously human reaction! The magnitude of this experience may be beyond our understanding, but the pattern is something familiar to everyone we interviewed who had finally felt belonging after being lost in isolation.
. . . .
In some ways, however, those who have been the victims of compulsive cycles are different from those who have not. Perhaps the distinction lies in their having been born or raised in such a way that they are susceptible to behavioral addictions, or perhaps it is simply that they, more than many others, realize the universal vulnerability of the human condition. Certainly, [the victims] we see around us differ from many others in having been the battlefields upon which all-out, unseen wars have been fought between good and evil, between heaven and hell, between the divine and demonic aspects of their own personalities. Because of this, there may be some other differences between these recovering addicts and the other Latter-day Saints who sit around them tomorrow in church. [These victims] may be more quick than the rest of the congregation to see the profundity in simple words or the shallowness of glib ones. They may be more alert to the struggles behind their neighbors’ smiles or the questions behind their confidence. They may be less likely than some to pass over the sacrament as a habitual ritual while they wait for an interesting speaker. To them, the words, “that they do always remember him,” “that they may always have his spirit to be with them,” will never be matter-of-fact or casual, for they remember, more clearly than most of their fellow Latter-day Saints, a time when they had all but forgotten Him and assumed that His spirit could never be with them again. They have a little more than the usual understanding of the pain He suffered for them at His atonement. As we interviewed such people, we heard echoes of that pain in their voices and saw it in their eyes. There are no words to describe it. But language is even more inadequate to convey the fulness of joy that followed when a victim of compulsive behavior turned back and learned to live according to a process of happiness. To all those who still struggle with addictive behaviors, who live through a continual descent with nothing but a hopeless hope that their longings will ever be known or satisfied, we join the recovering addicts we interviewed in pointing out the invitation of Jesus Christ:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30.)
We fervently believe that the atonement of the Redeemer is the way, the only way, by which the vicious cycle of compulsive behavior can be broken. Through Christ, the lives of behavioral addicts can be salvaged and made better than they were before. We know that this is true: we have seen it happen. During the research and writing of this book, we have seen many hearts broken and many spirits bruised by addiction. The ravages of the compulsive cycle reach into the lives not only of its victims but of all those who care for them. But there is no reason to abandon hope. In providing those affected by addictions with broken hearts and contrite spirits, Satan has put his own plan at great risk, for these things are all our Heavenly Father asks of us in exchange for eternal life. If we offer our hearts, souls, and lives to Him in complete humility, the Lord will help us turn back from the forces which pull us downward. He will forgive us, help us, and teach us to climb upward with our own strength until we are able to return and live with Him in the place we came from, the place we yearn for, the place where finally, after all our wanderings, we can know that we are home.
Martha Nibley Beck and John C. Beck
Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior, Deseret Book Company (1990)
The scriptures describe a number of Christlike attributes we need to develop during the course of our lives. They include knowledge and humility, charity and love, obedience and diligence, faith and hope. These personal character qualities stand independent of the organizational status of our Church unit, our economic circumstances, our family situation, culture, race, or language. Christlike attributes are gifts from God. They cannot be developed without His help. The one help we all need is given to us freely through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Having faith in Jesus Christ and in His Atonement means relying completely on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. Christlike attributes come into our lives as we exercise our agency righteously. Faith in Jesus Christ leads to action. When we have faith in Christ, we trust the Lord enough to follow His commandments—even when we do not completely understand the reasons for them. In seeking to become more like the Savior, we need to reevaluate our lives regularly and rely, through the path of true repentance, upon the merits of Jesus Christ and the blessings of His Atonement.
Developing Christlike attributes can be a painful process. We need to be ready to accept direction and correction from the Lord and His servants. This worldwide conference with its music and spoken word offers spiritual power, direction, and blessings “from on high” (D&C 43:16). It is a time when the voice of personal inspiration and revelation will bring peace to our souls and will teach us how to become more Christlike. This voice will be as sweet as the voice of a dear friend, and it will fill our souls when our hearts are sufficiently contrite.
By becoming more like the Savior, we will grow in our ability to “abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 15:13). We will “lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better” (D&C 25:10).
This leads me back to my aerodynamic analogy from the beginning. I spoke of focusing on the basics. Christlike attributes are the basics. They are the fundamental principles that will create “the wind beneath our wings.” As we develop Christlike attributes in our own lives, step-by-step, they will “bear [us] up as on eagles’ wings” (D&C 124:18). Our faith in Jesus Christ will provide power and a strong forward thrust; our unwavering and active hope will provide a powerful upward lift. Both faith and hope will carry us across oceans of temptations, over mountains of afflictions, and bring us safely back to our eternal home and destination.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“Christlike Attributes – the Wind beneath Our Wings,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 100
If we are to respond to tribulation by either growing out of it or growing strong enough to bear it more easily, we must know that Christ is focused on saving us. We are often greatly tempted to doubt in times of immense pain. We doubt ourselves and our righteousness. We doubt that our God and our Savior are really paying much attention to us. Some wonder if there even is a God, and others feel that he has turned his back to them. These are the times of chastening, of tutelage, of testing, of preparation of our souls for a future harvest.
If you are not going to trust a loving father and a Savior who died to save you, who are you going to trust in a world full of difficulties? Do you think you can trust in yourself alone? Are you powerful enough to overcome all things? Do you always know the right answer?
I know Latter-day Saints who have experienced enormous trials and, as a result, have lost trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. These friends have allowed their great pain to swell into a consuming anger. They have then ironically directed that anger toward the only Beings who can relieve their pain. There is no solace in such anger nor is there any ability to keep adversity at bay by keeping God away. By responding angrily toward a loving Savior, the original tragedy is only compounded.
You may have had terrible experiences come into your life, experiences for which you bear no blame. Such life events may have scarred you deeply and damaged your ability to trust anyone or anything. In some ways, the pain of the innocent can exceed the pain of the guilty in this life. To you I would ask a simple question. Do you want to continue living in your world of pain? If you do not, I ask another question. Do you know how to move out of your world of pain?
Jesus Christ is the God of broken people, the God of the hopeless, the God of the violated innocent, the God of ruined lives, the God of those who weep without ceasing. He is also and always will be the God of fresh starts, the God of new lives, the God of inner peace. His greatest ministry is where there is the greatest pain. There is no place so dark that He will not enter and bring a gentle and warming light.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
David P. Vandagriff
I Need Thee Every Hour – Applying the Atonement in Everyday Life, page 109-110
When you were baptized, you became participants in the first great hope, the Atonement of Christ. Every time you worthily partake of the sacrament, you have the opportunity to begin again and do a little better. It is like burying the old, unworthy part of yourself and starting over with a new life.
I talked to two young women who literally did bury their old ways. They owned some clothing that was not up to the standard of covenant daughters of God, so they dug a deep hole in the ground, placed all of their immodest clothing in the hole, and buried it!
Your hope and faith in the Savior will increase as you repent and make personal changes that are the equivalent of burying your own sins. You may also want to enlist the help of your parents and your bishop as you work to become better. When you repent and worthily partake of the sacrament, you can then “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). There is hope smiling brightly before you because of the Atonement of Christ. Because you have been baptized, you are already in the way to eternal life. Just stay in!
Julie B. Beck
“There Is Hope Smiling Brightly before Us,” Ensign, May 2003, 103
Sister Beck was First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency when she gave this talk
It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that he remained true. Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the agency of man. He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he willed so to do. As Paul wrote, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8); and he “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants records, “He suffered temptations but gave no heed unto them” (D&C 20:22).
President Howard W. Hunter
The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 76-02, p. 19
Modernists dispute that the Master voluntarily offered himself to atone for the sins of mankind, and they deny that there was in fact such an atonement. It is our firm belief that it is a reality, and nothing is more important in the entire divine plan of salvation than the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation comes because of the Atonement. In its absence the whole plan of creation would come to naught.
Without this atoning sacrifice, temporal death would be the end, and there would be no resurrection and no purpose in our spiritual lives. There would be no hope of eternal life.
President Howard W. Hunter
The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 68-05, p. 106
But how do we get a clear vision of who we are? Light is a key to vision! And Jesus Christ is the ultimate Light, the “light which shineth in darkness” (D&C 6:21), the light which chases “darkness from among [us]” (D&C 50:25). Faith in Jesus Christ is the key to vision, to seeing ourselves as the Lord sees us. So to improve our vision, we must increase our faith in and connection to the Savior.
It is no accident that faith in Jesus Christ—not only believing in Him but believing Him—is the first principle of the gospel. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, “Of all our needs, I think the greatest is an increase in faith” (“ ‘Lord, Increase Our Faith,’ ” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 54.)
We sometimes tend to define unbelievers as apostates or agnostics. But perhaps that definition is far too narrow. What about those of us who have received a witness of the divinity of the Savior and yet deep in our hearts don’t believe He will help us? We believe He’ll help others—President Hinckley, the Quorum of the Twelve, the stake Relief Society president—but not us.
Have you ever carefully selected a gift for someone only to present the gift and have it fall flat? Perhaps a simple “Thanks” feels nonchalant and even ungrateful. Similarly, it must be disappointing to the Lord, who offered the ultimate sacrifice, when we by our unbelief essentially refuse His gift and therefore His offer of help.
An unwillingness to believe that the Savior stands ready to deliver us from our difficulties is tantamount to refusing the gift. It is tragic when we refuse to turn to Him who paid the ultimate price and to let Him lift us up. Life is a test. But divine assistance is available to help us successfully complete this most critical examination.
More than once Nephi chastened his older brothers for their unbelief: “How is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him?” (1 Ne. 7:12). How indeed? It is a question we might ask ourselves. The Lord can do all things. But it is our faith in Him, even our willingness to believe, that activates the power of the Atonement in our lives. “We are made alive in Christ because of our faith” (2 Ne. 25:25). I love Nephi’s words when he tells his brothers, speaking of the Lord, “And he loveth those who will have him to be their God” (1 Ne. 17:40)—or in other words, those who accept Him and His gift.
One would think it would be easy to embrace and have faith in the gift of the Atonement. But I fear that some people know just enough about the gospel to feel guilty that they are not measuring up to some undefinable standard but not enough about the Atonement to feel the peace and strength it affords us. Perhaps some of us don’t know how to draw the power of the Atonement into our lives; others aren’t willing to seek its blessings. And some don’t ask because they don’t feel worthy. It is quite the irony—that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which contains the power to save every human being and to strengthen every soul, is sometimes interpreted in such a way that feelings of inadequacy result.
. . . .
In my early 30s I faced a personal disappointment that broke my heart. From a point of view distorted by emotional pain, I couldn’t believe that anything or anyone could take away the loneliness or that I would ever feel whole or happy again. In an effort to find peace, comfort, and strength, I turned to the Lord in a way I had not before. The scriptures became a lifeline, filled as they were with promises I had never noticed in quite the same way—that He would heal my broken heart and take away my pain, that He would succor me and deliver me from disappointment.
Fasting and prayer took on new intensity, and the temple became a place of refuge and revelation. What I learned was not only that the Lord could help me but that He would. Me. A regular, farm-grown member of the Church with no fancy titles or spectacular callings. It was during that agonizing period that I began to discover how magnificent, penetrating, and personal the power of the Atonement is.
I pleaded with God to change my circumstances, because I believed I could never be happy until He did. Instead, He changed my heart. I asked Him to take away my burden, but He strengthened me so I could bear my burdens with ease (see Mosiah 24:15). I had always been a believer, but I’m not sure I had understood what, or who, it was I believed in.
President George Q. Cannon (1827–1901), a counselor in the First Presidency, taught: “When we went forth into the waters of baptism and covenanted with our Father in heaven to serve Him and keep His commandments, He bound Himself also by covenant to us that He would never desert us, never leave us to ourselves, never forget us, that in the midst of trials and hardships, when everything was arrayed against us, He would be near unto us and would sustain us. That was His covenant” (Gospel Truth, sel. Jerreld L. Newquist, 2 vols. [1974], 1:170).
And it all begins with the willingness to believe. “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them” (Ether 12:12).
Do you believe that the Savior will really do for you what He has said He will do? That He can ease the sting of loneliness and enable you to deal with that haunting sense of inadequacy? That He will help you forgive? That He can fill you with optimism and hope? That He will help you resist your greatest temptation and tame your most annoying weakness? That He will respond to your deepest longing? That He is the only source of comfort, strength, direction, and peace that will not change, will not betray you, and will never let you down?
Sheri L. Dew
“This Is a Test. It Is Only a Test,” Ensign, Jul 2000, 62. From a talk given on 1 May 1998 at BYU Women’s Conference.
[Jesus Christ’s] Atonement is the greatest event in human history. There is nothing to compare with it. It is the most fundamental part of our Father’s plan for the happiness of His children. Without it, mortal life would be a dead-end existence with neither hope nor future. The gift of our divine Redeemer brings an entirely new dimension to our lives. Because of our Savior’s sacrifice, instead of dismal oblivion, death becomes only a passage to a more glorious realm. The Resurrection becomes a reality for all. Eternal life becomes available to those who walk in obedience to His commandments” (Australia stake conference satellite broadcast, Feb. 12, 2005).
President Gordon B. Hinckley
“Inspirational Thoughts,” Ensign, September, 2007, 4-8
Understanding what we can of the Atonement and the Resurrection of Christ helps us to obtain a knowledge of Him and of His mission. 6 Any increase in our understanding of His atoning sacrifice draws us closer to Him. Literally, the Atonement means to be “at one” with Him. The nature of the Atonement and its effects is so infinite, so unfathomable, and so profound that it lies beyond the knowledge and comprehension of mortal man. I am profoundly grateful for the principle of saving grace. Many people think they need only confess that Jesus is the Christ and then they are saved by grace alone. We cannot be saved by grace alone, “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” 7 . . . .
The Atonement and the Resurrection accomplish many things. The Atonement cleanses us of sin on condition of our repentance. Repentance is the condition on which mercy is extended. 25 After all we can do to pay to the uttermost farthing and make right our wrongs, the Savior’s grace is activated in our lives through the Atonement, which purifies us and can perfect us. 26 Christ’s Resurrection overcame death and gave us the assurance of life after death. Said He: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” 27 The Resurrection is unconditional and applies to all who have ever lived and ever will live. 28 It is a free gift. President John Taylor described this well when he said: “The tombs will be opened and the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they shall come forth, they who have done good to the resurrection of the just, and they who have done evil to the resurrection of the unjust.” 29 . . . .
The Atonement not only benefits the sinner but also benefits those sinned against—that is, the victims. By forgiving “those who trespass against us” (JST, Matt. 6:13) the Atonement brings a measure of peace and comfort to those who have been innocently victimized by the sins of others. The basic source for the healing of the soul is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is true whether it be from the pain of a personal tragedy or a terrible national calamity . . . .
James E. Faust, “The Atonement: Our Greatest Hope,” Ensign, Nov 2001, 18