When you repent and worthily partake of the sacrament, you can then “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). There is hope smiling brightly before you because of the Atonement of Christ.
. . . .
Because of Christ there is hope smiling brightly before you, and you need not worry too much about sickness, death, poverty, or other afflictions. The Lord will take care of you. Your responsibility is to keep the commandments, feast upon the words of Christ, and stay in the path to your heavenly home.
. . . .
With the hope of the Atonement and the Resurrection, you have a third great hope, the hope of eternal life. Because you have a Savior, you can plan for a future that extends beyond this life. If you keep the commandments, you are promised eternal life.
.
Sister Julie B. Beck
“There Is Hope Smiling Brightly before Us“, Ensign, May 2003, 103–5
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 good people 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
Don’t vex your mind by trying to explain the suffering you have to endure in this life. Don’t think that God is punishing you or disciplining you or that he has rejected you. Even in the midst of your suffering, you are in his kingdom. You are always his child, and he has his protecting arms around you. Does a child understand everything his father does? No, but he can confidently nestle in his father’s arms and feel perfect happiness, even while tears glisten in his eyes, because he is his father’s child.
Albert Schweitzer
Reverence for Life
We need not be possessed of an unholy or intemperate zeal in order to be saved; we need only be constant and dependable.
God is the other party with us in the gospel covenant. He is the controlling partner. He lets us know, through the influence of the Spirit, that the gospel covenant is still intact and the supernal promises are sure. The Savior invites us to learn the timeless and comforting lesson that “he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).
Peace. Hope. Assurance. These things come to us by virtue of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ and as a natural result of our new creation. They serve as an anchor to the soul, a solid and steady reminder of who we are and Whose we are.
Robert Millett
The Harbinger of Salvation
(Paragraph breaks added to enhance online readability)
Life is repentance . . . progression and improvement and growth and maturity and refinement are all forms of repentance . . . the God-fearing live in a constant state of repentance. It is not intended that we exist in a constant fear or frustration or anxiety but rather that we have desires for holiness and purity, longings to feel quiet confidence before God.
To push ourselves beyond the mark is, in a strange sort of way, a statement that we fear we must do the job ourselves if we expect to get it done.
Balance – that is the key. I have come to sense the need to balance a type of “divine discontent” – a healthy longing to improve – with what Nephi called a “perfect brightness of hope,” the Spirit-given assurance that in and through Jesus Christ we are going to make it.
Robert Millet
Grace Works, Deseret Book , 2007, pages132–33
Re-post of a hymn that always applies to you or someone you know.
Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
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.
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.
This hymn draws extensively from Isaiah. See Isaiah 41:10, 51:10, 1:23,25
How Firm a Foundation
Hymn 85
When you repent and worthily partake of the sacrament, you can then “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). There is hope smiling brightly before you because of the Atonement of Christ.
. . . .
Because of Christ there is hope smiling brightly before you, and you need not worry too much about sickness, death, poverty, or other afflictions. The Lord will take care of you. Your responsibility is to keep the commandments, feast upon the words of Christ, and stay in the path to your heavenly home.
. . . .
With the hope of the Atonement and the Resurrection, you have a third great hope, the hope of eternal life. Because you have a Savior, you can plan for a future that extends beyond this life. If you keep the commandments, you are promised eternal life.
Sister Julie B. Beck
“There Is Hope Smiling Brightly before Us“, Ensign, May 2003, 103–5