“Our promised blessings are beyond measure,” President Thomas S. Monson declares. “Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith.”
Transformed through Righteous Choices
In addition to President Monson, other living prophets and apostles reinforce the same message. “The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction” is evidence of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s infinite love for each of us, says President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency. Through facing the challenges of mortality we prepare for “the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life. . . . For us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do.”
The true test of life, President Eyring explains, is not adversity but “to see if we can endure difficulty. It is to see if we can endure it well. We pass the test by showing that we remembered Him and the commandments He gave us. And to endure well is to keep those commandments whatever the opposition, whatever the temptation, and whatever the tumult around us.”
Just Do the Very Best You Can
Rather than waste time and energy worrying over our ability to endure to the end, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles suggests, “Just do the very best you can each day. Do the basic things and, before you realize it, your life will be full of spiritual understanding that will confirm to you that your Heavenly Father loves you. When a person knows this, then life will be full of purpose and meaning, making balance easier to maintain.”
Meant to Have Joy
Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaches that “sadness, disappointment, and severe challenges are events in life, not life itself. . . . They should not be allowed to become the confining center of everything you do.” With the reminder that the Lord told His prophet Lehi that “men are that they might have joy,” Elder Scott says, “[The Lord’s] intent is that each of us finds joy. It will not be conditional for you as you obey the commandments, have faith in the Master, and do the things that are necessary to have joy here on earth.”
To Refine Us, Not Destroy Us
“In the school of mortality, the tutor is often pain and tribulation, but the lessons are meant to refine and bless us and strengthen us, not to destroy us,” Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles says. “There is nothing that we are enduring that Jesus does not understand, and He waits for us to go to our Heavenly Father in prayer. I testify that if we will be obedient and if we are diligent, our prayers will be answered, our problems will diminish, our fears will dissipate, light will come upon us, the darkness of despair will be dispersed, and we will be close to the Lord and feel of His love and of the comfort of the Holy Ghost.”
Blessings Will Come
“It is not without a recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declares. “They sustain us in our hour of need—and always will, even if we cannot recognize that intervention. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”
President Monson says, “I bear to you my witness that [Heavenly Father] is there. He does hear and answer every prayer. His Son, the Christ, burst the bands of our earthly prisons. Heaven’s blessings await you.”
