This post is based on a most recent General Conference talk from Sunday afternoon session that I love called, "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears" by Elder Evan A. Schmutz. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading and listening to the talk.
Elder Schmutz mentioned, "As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, He allowed sorrow to be woven into our mortal experience. While it seems that painful trials fall unevenly on us, we can be assured that to one degree or another, we all suffer and struggle. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will guide us to a greater understanding why this must be so.
When we view the difficult experiences of life through the lens of faith in Christ, we are able to see that there can be godly purpose in our suffering. The faithful can experience the truth of Peter’s seemingly contradictory counsel. He wrote, “If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye.”
As we apply our “hearts to understanding,” we can increase in our ability to both endure our trials well and learn from and be refined by them. Such understanding provides an answer to the ageless question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Everyone listening today is acquainted with some measure of loneliness, despair, grief, pain, or sorrow.
Without an “eye of faith” and an understanding of eternal truth, we often find that the misery and suffering experienced in mortality can obscure or eclipse the eternal joy of knowing that the great plan of our Father in
Heaven really is the eternal plan of happiness. There is no other way to receive a fulness of joy.
God invites us to respond with faith to our own unique afflictions in order that we may reap blessings and gain knowledge that can be learned in no other way. We are instructed to keep the commandments in every condition and circumstance, for “he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.” And as we read in scripture, “If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.”
If I may speak to you individually “all ye that labour and are heavy laden” may I suggest that your personal struggles your individual sorrows, pains, tribulations, and infirmities of every kind are all known to our Father in Heaven and to His Son. Take courage! Have faith! And believe in the promises of God!
The purpose and mission of Jesus Christ included that He would “take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people,” “take upon him their infirmities,” and “succor his people according to their infirmities.”
To fully receive these gifts our Savior has so freely offered, we all must learn that suffering in and of itself does not teach or grant to us anything of lasting value unless we deliberately become involved in the process of learning from our afflictions through the exercise of faith.
I have observed in the lives and examples of others that exercising strong and abiding faith in Jesus Christ and His promises provides the sure hope of better things to come. This sure hope steadies us, bringing the strength and power we need in order to endure. When we can link our suffering to an assurance of purpose in our mortality and more specifically to the reward awaiting us in heavenly places, our faith in Christ increases and we receive comfort to our souls.
Then we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught: “There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the ‘light that is endless, that can never be darkened’ [Mosiah 16:9]. It is the very Son of God Himself.”
We can take strength in knowing that all the hard experiences in this life are temporary; even the darkest nights turn into dawn for the faithful. When all is finished and we have endured all things with faith in Jesus Christ, we have the promise that “God shall wipe away all [the] tears from [our] eyes.”
I would like to strongly encourage you to read the whole talk in your own time and here is the link,
www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/god-shall-wipe-away-all-tears
If you can not see the Image that I have shared for this post, it says "The Savior can wipe away our tears of regret and remove the burden of our sins his atonement allows us to leave the past behind and move forward with clean hands a pure heart and ... become better. - President Dieter F. Utchdorf."
Elder Schmutz mentioned, "As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, He allowed sorrow to be woven into our mortal experience. While it seems that painful trials fall unevenly on us, we can be assured that to one degree or another, we all suffer and struggle. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will guide us to a greater understanding why this must be so.
When we view the difficult experiences of life through the lens of faith in Christ, we are able to see that there can be godly purpose in our suffering. The faithful can experience the truth of Peter’s seemingly contradictory counsel. He wrote, “If ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye.”
As we apply our “hearts to understanding,” we can increase in our ability to both endure our trials well and learn from and be refined by them. Such understanding provides an answer to the ageless question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Everyone listening today is acquainted with some measure of loneliness, despair, grief, pain, or sorrow.
Heaven really is the eternal plan of happiness. There is no other way to receive a fulness of joy.
God invites us to respond with faith to our own unique afflictions in order that we may reap blessings and gain knowledge that can be learned in no other way. We are instructed to keep the commandments in every condition and circumstance, for “he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.” And as we read in scripture, “If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.”
If I may speak to you individually “all ye that labour and are heavy laden” may I suggest that your personal struggles your individual sorrows, pains, tribulations, and infirmities of every kind are all known to our Father in Heaven and to His Son. Take courage! Have faith! And believe in the promises of God!
The purpose and mission of Jesus Christ included that He would “take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people,” “take upon him their infirmities,” and “succor his people according to their infirmities.”
To fully receive these gifts our Savior has so freely offered, we all must learn that suffering in and of itself does not teach or grant to us anything of lasting value unless we deliberately become involved in the process of learning from our afflictions through the exercise of faith.
I have observed in the lives and examples of others that exercising strong and abiding faith in Jesus Christ and His promises provides the sure hope of better things to come. This sure hope steadies us, bringing the strength and power we need in order to endure. When we can link our suffering to an assurance of purpose in our mortality and more specifically to the reward awaiting us in heavenly places, our faith in Christ increases and we receive comfort to our souls.
Then we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught: “There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the ‘light that is endless, that can never be darkened’ [Mosiah 16:9]. It is the very Son of God Himself.”
We can take strength in knowing that all the hard experiences in this life are temporary; even the darkest nights turn into dawn for the faithful. When all is finished and we have endured all things with faith in Jesus Christ, we have the promise that “God shall wipe away all [the] tears from [our] eyes.”
I would like to strongly encourage you to read the whole talk in your own time and here is the link,
www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/god-shall-wipe-away-all-tears
If you can not see the Image that I have shared for this post, it says "The Savior can wipe away our tears of regret and remove the burden of our sins his atonement allows us to leave the past behind and move forward with clean hands a pure heart and ... become better. - President Dieter F. Utchdorf."
Stay Tuned until next time.
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