Being challenged doesn’t mean we are outside the company if the Lord’s elect.
Alma’s imagery reflects the sobering reality that at some point the full, excruciating guilt of every sin we commit must be felt. Justice demands it, and God Himself cannot change it. When Alma remembered “all” his sins—especially those that had destroyed the faith of others—his pain was virtually unbearable, and the idea of standing before God filled him with “inexpressible horror.” He yearned to “become extinct both soul and body.”
However, Alma said everything started to change the moment his “mind caught hold upon” the prophesied “coming of one Jesus Christ … to atone for the sins of the world” and he “cried within [his] heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.” With that one thought and that one plea, Alma was filled with “exquisite” joy “as exceeding as was [his] pain.”
If we do not accept the suffering whereby Christ suffered the full guilt of all our sins – by demonstrating faith in Christ – then we must receive the fullness of that guilt. If we turn to Him then He can save us from some (and in some cases all) of that pain.
We must never forget that the very purpose of repentance is to take certain misery and transform it into pure bliss.
Medical science, professional counseling, or legal rectification can help alleviate such suffering. But note, all good gifts—including these—come from the Savior. Regardless of the causes of our worst hurts and heartaches, the ultimate source of relief is the same: Jesus Christ. He alone holds the full power and healing balm to correct every mistake, right every wrong, adjust every imperfection, mend every wound, and deliver every delayed blessing. Like witnesses of old, I testify that “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” but rather a loving Redeemer who descended from His throne above and went forth “suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind … , that he may know … how to succor his people.”
Only faith that nothing is beyond Christ kept me going in the worst of times.
For anyone today with pains so intense or so unique that you feel no one else could fully appreciate them, you may have a point. There may be no family member, friend, or priesthood leader—however sensitive and well-meaning each may be—who knows exactly what you are feeling or has the precise words to help you heal. But know this: there is One who understands perfectly what you are experiencing, who is “mightier than all the earth,” and who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that [you] ask or think.” The process will unfold in His way and on His schedule, but Christ stands ready always to heal every ounce and aspect of your agony.
On the other side, as one caring for people experiencing great suffering, we cannot and need not assume or act as if we fully comprehend their suffering. It is better and more accurate to act with empathy while pointing them to Christ who does fully comprehend their hurts – both seen and unseen.
The very nature of God and aim of our earthly existence is happiness, but we cannot become perfect beings of divine joy without experiences that test us, sometimes to our very core.
You must also resist the related lie that your sufferings somehow suggest you stand outside the circle of God’s chosen ones, who seem to glide from one blessed state to another. Instead, see yourself as John the Revelator surely saw you in his majestic revelation of the latter days. For John saw “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, [who] stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, … [who] cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God.”
When asked: “What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?” John received the answer: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Brothers and sisters, suffering in righteousness helps qualify you for, rather than distinguishes you from, God’s elect. And it makes their promises your promises. As John declares, you “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on [you], nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed [you], and shall lead [you] unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from [your] eyes.”
Tribulations endured well make us more like Christ and prepare us to receive His greatest gift.
I witness to you that through the staggering goodness of Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement, we can escape the deserved agonies of our moral failings and overcome the undeserved agonies of our mortal misfortunes. Under His direction, your divine destiny will be one of unparalleled magnificence and indescribable joy—a joy so intense and so unique to you, your particular “ashes” will become beauties “beyond anything earthly.”
Leave a Reply