God’s justice
The ancients suffered for their obedience to God. For example, the apostles “rejoic[ed] that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” after being beaten and jailed (see Acts 5:41). Peter said “if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” (1 Peter 4:16) Why did they subject themselves to suffering? How did they find joy in doing so?
The answer is found in the principle of justice. Justice is the receipt of what is merited. God is just, in that everyone always eventually receives what they deserve (see Alma 41:15).
Justice requires two components. First, the recognition of what is merited. Second, the delivery of what is merited. Recognition of what is merited requires knowledge, without which reality can’t be perceived correctly and completely enough to establish an accurate accounting. Influence of outcomes requires power to arrange circumstances according to cause and effect.
One can only be as just as their knowledge of what is right, recognition of what is merited, and power to arrange outcomes allows. What good would it do for someone to recognize injustice if they have no ability to change outcomes, or to have power to arrange outcomes if they have a limited sense of what is right?
God is perfectly just. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4) God knows all things: “O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.” (2 Nephi 9:20) God has all power: “...with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
God’s justice is much more effectual than any other being’s justice could be because he has all knowledge, all power, and sees all things—meaning he is able to more accurately know what is right, recognize what is merited, and arrange outcomes according to what is merited.
Justice is a two-edged sword
Some assume that God’s justice is primarily negative. Justice means to give what is merited. Justice is neither inherently negative nor positive. It comprises both reward and punishment. Whether God’s justice drives blessing or punishment in your life is wholly dependent on the degree to which your desires and actions are aligned with him.
For example, God’s justice inclines toward blessings for the righteous and punishment for the wicked: “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11) For those who are oppressed, God’s judgment provides redemption: “The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” (Psalm 103:6)
God’s justice is not rooted in either punishment or blessing, but in cause and effect. The root of God’s justice is consequence of things as they really are. To maximize your benefit from God’s justice, you should align your desires and actions completely with your most sincere understanding of his character and will, as he is the complete embodiment of things as they really are and the perfect example of how to be in order to navigate reality for the greatest joy.
God’s justice isn’t always instant, but it is unavoidable
In this life we are surrounded by examples of situations that seem anything but just. Many have found themselves in a similar line of reasoning as the following:
14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Malachi 3)
This life is intentionally designed to provide the ideal environment for developing trust in God. Were the complete effects of every choice immediately obvious, it would be impossible to grow in trust in God of our own free will. As a result, justice is not always instantaneous in this life.
While God’s justice is not always instant, it is unavoidable. The wicked may be “...exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.” (Job 24:24) The righteous may be persecuted for a moment, but as sure as the Lord lives, they will be compensated many times over if they remain faithful.
The Lord interestingly promised that though his followers would endure extreme persecution, “there shall not an hair of your head perish”:
16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
19 In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21)
This is a very interesting promise, given the fact that he indicated that their persecution, at least in some cases, would include being put to death. Most people will see that as a contradiction, because if you die, surely your hair will perish! The Lord was trying to teach the principle of patience through emphasizing that we ought to have an eternal view of things. In the end all things will be paid out in justice.
The trajectory of one who seeks joy will necessarily pass through temporarily unpleasant things. There is an unavoidable purpose in this, and as you trust in God, you will adopt a long-term view of your state.
The patient realize that perspective ought to include not just the present, but the future. You will be able to acknowledge short-term affliction but be in the mindset of long-term benefit. You can face, for example, betrayal by family, friends, and even face death, and still feel that “not an hair of your head [will] perish.”
Though things are presently murky, there will be a day where those who lived long lives free of toil will wish they could trade it all for an eternity of joy, while those who were willing to temporarily live with affliction will enjoy never-ending joy.
There is a time and a place for all things
We often don’t receive the joy that God desires us to have because we are unwilling to wait the requisite time he has appointed for us to receive it. God’s timeline isn’t arbitrary. It is based on his knowledge of things as they are.
You would never plant your garden in the wrong time of year. You would know that doing so would guarantee that your crops would die. You would never prematurely harvest your produce. Gardeners know when to plant, and they know that after they plant, they must wait until harvest.
Only foolish farmers would worry about the time it takes corn to grow. Instead, they worry about planting in the time of planting, weeding in the time of weeding, and harvesting in the time of harvesting:
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. (James 5)
It is wise to be honest about the need for patience. Many good things unavoidably require temporary suffering or the passage of time before they can be realized. Put another way, you will be permanently kept from obtaining many things until and unless you are willing to suffer.
Patience is trusting in God’s justice
In a scriptural sense, patience means to maintain your trust in God while receiving something less than what is merited. Your patience is a manifestation of your trust in God or lack thereof.
Patience is not just an accessory to God’s plan. It is an essential step in the path of what we seek because the absence of it will prevent us from doing the things that we need to do to obtain the greatest joy.
In tough times, it might seem like God is arbitrarily punishing or testing you. There is nothing arbitrary about God.
He does all things according to his perfect knowledge. “But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.” (2 Nephi 2:24)
He does all things according to his character, and he is perfectly loving. “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world.....” (2 Nephi 26:24)
When he tries you, it is only to help you. If he is telling you that something is not right for right now, know that he has your best interest at heart, because he only does the things that benefit you.
When you trust that God knows all things, you can find rest in your trust in him and in his eventual justice, even when you don’t know exactly how or when it will be fulfilled.
God not only knows all things, he also loves you more than you love yourself. Submitting to him in all things, no matter how foolish they may seem in your very limited perspective, is the absolutely optimal path to maximize your joy.
Better understanding God’s love for you can empower you to have greater patience. Paul wrote:
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (Romans 5)
Paul is illustrating that we acquire patience through first believing in the love and wisdom of God. Hope in these qualities of God will give us power to endure situations that appear negative in our limited understanding, but are actually pathways to greater joy in God’s perfect understanding. As we submit to God’s will, we will find time and again that every tribulation we encounter is nothing more than what is precisely necessary to bring us to a state of greater joy than we previously enjoyed. With every cycle through this process of hope and fulfilled experience, we gain greater and greater trust in God, and more and more patience.
This cycle of hope through affliction to experience to greater trust in God is what James was describing when he said: “...the trying of your faith worketh patience.” (James 1:3)
When God’s will requires waiting, the waiting part is just as important as doing the rest of his will: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36) In terms of cause and effect, the cause of your blessings is not limited to living his commandments, but also often includes the need to wait for God to fulfill his promises in a timeline different from your own.
When we trust God, we will find great strength in the belief that the situations he places us in will lead to greater joy than we could have found of our own accord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Our organic impulses are insufficient to lead us to the glorious end God intends, as “...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Good things only come from God, and yielding to them is essential if we will obtain all the joy he desires for us:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
Note the use of “inflict.” The truth is that God never inflicts anything on anyone. It just seems that way to those with limited understanding. He doesn’t create cause and effect. He does a great deal to insulate us, to varying degrees, from it. What we perceive as him inflicting trials or dealing punishment is nothing more than his stepping out of the way to expose us to greater degrees of the consequences of reality.
Everything he does leads to better outcomes. All those who trust in God will eventually see that. Those who trusted in him will have everlasting joy in what they received by following him and in comprehending how much he loves them, while those who chose not to trust him will experience great sorrow, anguish, and pain through the everpresent knowledge that he did everything possible to guide them to a better place but they stubbornly refused.
How much are you willing to go through in order to obtain the joy God would like to give you? He has unlimited joy. If you seek unlimited joy, you must develop unlimited trust in him, because to obtain it will require you to walk through greater and greater difficulty.
Accruing God’s justice
One reason God delays his justice is to give time for the wicked to repent before their consequences are paid out in punishment:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Another reason God delays his justice is to give time for the righteous to compound the blessings he will eventually pay out to them:
2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, <u>the reward of the same is greater in the</u> kingdom of heaven.
3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. (D&C 58)
We accrue God’s justice when we willingly relinquish the blessings we have merited and patiently await the fulfillment of his promised justice.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord taught that when we are justly compensated, we have received all that is due to us, and can expect no further blessing:
2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6)
The Lord was trying to teach that there is a way to leverage God’s justice beyond mere fair compensation for your works.
His justice gives great strength to those who trust him, because it dictates that no matter what you endure, you will always be given an outcome that is worth the price.
The accrual of unjust suffering (that is, suffering that does not come as a consequence of your poor choices) will not only always lead to greater joy, but is the only path to joy greater than any joy you’ve known. Paul said:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)
Those who test these promises by enduring afflictions without complaining will find that they are true. In the end, they will see what joy they have obtained and understand that they never could have had it without experiencing what they did, and will be that much stronger for the next set of challenges:
...I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day. (Alma 36:3)
And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. (Alma 36:27)
Some would object to these promises because they have gone through hard things and not yet experienced great joy. Those who fail to see the fulfillment of these promises are either still in the midst of the process or ejected from the situation too soon. Like pulling a cake out of the oven before it is done baking, they failed to see through the process that would bring them the very thing they desired.
The joy God can give us is limited by the depth of patience we are willing to endure. If God had a tremendous blessing prepared for you, but it took one week of apparent suffering to go through what was required to obtain it, would you do it? Women endure nine months of suffering to have a child, and consider it a worthy endeavor. What about one year? What about ten? What is your limit?
When you are extremely trusting of God’s justice, you will not only trust in God to deal justice out to you, you will actively seek experiences (such as giving support to those who can’t pay you back) where there is no foreseeable path to justice. For example, he said:
12 ...When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14)
In the scriptures, the idea of subjecting yourself to experiences below what you have merited through obedience to God is called abasement. The Lord said, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
To abase oneself is to willingly seek out experiences that relinquish the good things one has merited:
6 Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men:
7 For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen. (Proverbs 25)
The scriptures use the word “condescension” to refer to abasement for the purposes of helping others.
The way we obtain greater blessings is by enduring faithfully through times when we receive less than we deserve. When you willingly subject yourself to experiences below what you have merited through obedience to God, you will eventually be proportionately blessed by God in fulfillment of his justice.
This willingness to suffer below our privileges is akin to compound interest. Instead of withdrawing from our principle in demanding what we have earned, we patiently wait as the Lord continues to postpone the delivery of his justice. In abdicating our just reward, we compound interest to our account with God, and end up much better off in the end than we would have been were he to instantly deliver what we have merited.
Consider the case of Hannah. A barren woman, she cried in righteous humility to the Lord for a child and was blessed with a son. Instead of being satisfied with this miracle by enjoying her son, she instead dedicated him to the Lord, sending him to live as a priest at the temple in the care of another. This defies reason and is incredibly hard to imagine. Yet, in doing so, she obtained an even greater blessing, as God gave her three more sons and two daughters (see 1 Samuel 1 and 2).
For another example, consider the case of Joseph, son of Jacob. Joseph was the most righteous of his father’s twelve sons, yet he was persecuted by his siblings and sold into slavery. As a slave, the Lord blessed him with propriety, which his master soon noticed, resulting in his promotion to head of the household. He was falsely accused by his master’s wife, resulting in his imprisonment. He maintained his character and was promoted there as well. Eventually, he had an opportunity to interpret the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners. Had he failed to maintain his character, this opportunity wouldn’t have arisen. A full two years after his interpretation came to pass, one of his two former fellow prisoners finally remembered him. He was given an opportunity to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, and as a reward was placed at the head of the kingdom where he not only enjoyed more freedom, power, and wealth than he ever would have had in any other situation, but more importantly became an instrument in God’s hands to save entire nations from starvation.
In Joseph’s case and in ours, we must be willing to endure patient suffering, knowing God’s justice will eventually be poured out on us in blessing. We must realize that the greatest blessings can only come through compounded suffering. We must trust God enough to endure pathways that seem unlikely and even impossible, and learn to rest in our assurance of his goodness no matter how terrible our situation may seem.
Compounding blessings is not an idea whose focus is maximizing what we get from God. Those who intend to use it for selfish purposes will quickly realize that their corrupt heart is incapable of the degree of trust in God necessary to live it.
The principle of compounding God’s blessings through voluntary abasement is not a gospel accessory. It is a vital tool that is absolutely necessary to use in order to obtain the joy God desires to give you.
For example, Abraham only obtained the great promises God gave him after he “...had patiently endured....” (Hebrews 6:15), or exercised a willingness to continue in a state of prolonged delayed justice. You, too, can obtain promises from God by abasing yourself: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36)
It is only by exercising abasement that you can “possess your soul...” (Luke 21:19) because you can’t obtain all that God has through the merits of your own character—only by leveraging God’s character, namely his justice. It is the only way to obtain the “crown of life.” As James taught:
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12)
Jesus once taught a rich young man that the only way he could “be perfect” was to “...go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” (Matthew 19:21) You “lay up treasures in heaven” any time you voluntarily abase yourself, creating a situation where God will bless you much more in the end than any cost you incurred while awaiting his justice.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6)
The state of inheriting all the joy that God has is called “being perfect” in the scriptures. Jesus taught that the key to obtaining this state is voluntarily sacrificing for others beyond what they deserve and beyond their capability to repay you:
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5)
James reiterated this lesson when he taught:
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1)
Living off the interest
The full magnitude of blessings of the law of justice is available only to those who are subjected to co-occurring delays of God’s justice. The more numerous and intense these stacked tribulations are, the greater the trial of faith, and the more substantially God compounds the blessings accrued.
For some reason, the common assumption is that situations requiring patience will come independent of the desires and actions of the people they come to. These situations can certainly occur that way. However, the full magnitude of blessings available through this law is only obtained by those who desire, seek out, and accept opportunities to relinquish the blessings they have merited.
When a person refuses the blessings they have merited, they compound the degree of blessing that comes to them. The compounding ceases when we accept the blessing merited. In some cases, however, it is possible to perpetuate the compounding indefinitely. Perpetual compounding does not mean never receiving the merited blessings. Instead, the blessings compound to the point where dividends from them can be paid out without reducing the principle. If this sounds a lot like living off the proceeds of investments instead of the invested capital, it is because this is precisely how it works.
When you live off the interest of your merited blessings, all the outpourings of God's love you receive are given to you not as the payment of the blessings you have merited, but as part of the bare minimum of those blessings that must be paid out to you in order to maintain the law of justice, which like every other law has its absolute limits in how long it can be put off. The bare minimum is given to you to strengthen you through experiences that, were it not given, would overcome you. Moreover, living off the bare minimum will lead you to greater growth in joy and growth in your relationship with God than any other path.
Trusting God’s will
Many people ask why God lets bad things happen to good people. The answer is simple: he doesn’t. Everything that happens to good people is good, even if they don’t yet realize that. As Paul said, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) How could Paul be so confident about this? He knew that God loves us more than we can imagine, and far more than we love ourselves. He also knew God knows all things. He knew that anything that happens to those who sincerely reconcile their lives to their best idea of God is for their good—whether or not it matches what we want or when we want it.
Whenever our will conflicts with God’s, it is either because we lack the knowledge he has that shows his will to be beneficial to us, or we do not believe how it benefits us even after we are shown.
Like Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon, we are quick to dismiss things we don’t understand as foolish because we aren’t familiar enough with God’s character and/or don’t believe the things he has told us:
11 Now this he spake because of the stiffneckedness of Laman and Lemuel; for behold they did murmur in many things against their father, because he was a visionary man, and had led them out of the land of Jerusalem, to leave the land of their inheritance, and their gold, and their silver, and their precious things, to perish in the wilderness. And this they said he had done because of the foolish imaginations of his heart.
12 And thus Laman and Lemuel, being the eldest, did murmur against their father. And they did murmur because they knew not <u>the dealings of that God who had created them.</u>
13 Neither did they believe that Jerusalem, that great city, could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets.... (1 Nephi 2)
Everything God puts you through is good. To help you find joy and peace in spite of situations you don’t yet understand, imagine scenarios where what you are going through becomes worth the cost. Expecting mothers can think about what holding their baby will be like. College students can imagine the flexibility and security that comes through a stable, well-paying job. Boot camp attendees can imagine pinning on their rank. Recently dumped romantic partners can imagine undiscovered problems with their partner, or unmet needs they may fill with a future partner.
Bad things don’t happen to good people, because they will only encounter situations they can learn and grow from, and they will always be recompensed by a just God for their suffering: “There shall no evil happen to the just...” (Proverbs 12:21) When you trust in God and in his character, you can trust that all things that happen to you are actually blessings, even when you don't see how that could be.
To have greater joy in life, you must come to trust God’s will.
Appropriately value the arm of the flesh
The idea of trusting in God’s will may be easier to apply in some situations than others. While it is easy to imagine the benefits of a new partner, it is not so easy to imagine the benefits of cancer, losing a child, or losing your home. We seem very focused on denominating benefit in temporal terms. We seem reluctant to realize just how much of our existence flows from our mind and character. If happiness truly stems from how we perceive life, what greater benefit could there be than obtaining a perception capable of greater happiness?
Many things that happen in life do not have a joyful temporal outcome. But they can and do have a joyful mental outcome. Great loss shows you where you need to grow to find enduring happiness. Significant affliction seems to be the only path to gaining true appreciation, which is critically linked to deep joy.
The Lord taught:
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6)
Beware the temptation to measure life’s outcomes solely in terms of the temporal. The kingdom of God is within you, and seeking it first means putting a much higher value on how much of God’s knowledge and character you have acquired and assimilated than you do on anything else—up to, and including, life itself.
Learning to let go
The Lord said that “...the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) How and why? The truth is the knowledge of things as they really are. As your perception of reality becomes closer to things as they really are—things as God sees them—you will be free from avoidable suffering and empowered to contend with unavoidable suffering. One part of this is being freed from worrying about things you can’t change. Great torment occurs when we worry about things we can’t change. This is the root cause of depression. The cure to depression is an awareness of and trust in the character of God.
When you understand God’s love, you trust him completely. When you trust in God completely, you can’t be scared of anything that happens to you. The apostle John wrote: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear....” (1 John 4:18) Mormon wrote: “...I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.” (Moroni 8:16) When you trust in God completely, you let go of the things you can’t change, because you trust that he knows what he is doing and that everything he does is for your benefit. If God ordains it, it must in the end be for your good. Trust in him!