Information is the tool through which the Lord teaches us the understanding, actions, beliefs, and feelings sufficient to have great joy and happiness in spite of anything that has happened, will happen, or could happen to us in this life. The Lord imparts information to us through his word. A simplistic view would consider his word to mean scripture. It is much more than that.
The Lord’s word is truth, and truth is the Lord’s word, because all truth comes from him. It is not limited to what is found in scripture, but also includes—for the individual—the sum total of everything manifested in one’s conscience. It includes all observations, introspections, and critical thoughts about reality. The Lord’s word is one’s sincere idea of what is good and what is bad, what is functional and what is not, what is pragmatic and what is idealistic, and so on.
Clearly, one’s position in these things will differ from another’s based on their effort, capacity, and experience. The degree to which an individual’s understanding approaches the Lord’s is the degree to which they have overcome all things. To have a fullness of joy, one must approach the understanding of God himself.
It is the truth that makes us free. Obtaining and applying successively more information makes you free:
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, <u>If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;</u>
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8)
We suffer and are imprisoned by lack of information. God sends information to teach us how to overcome what besets us.
15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107)
This information is found in God’s word revealed as you live through life’s circumstances:
1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5)
It is the truth that provides the tools to overcome all things. The Lord makes it possible for you to overcome things not by taking them away but by giving you the understanding, beliefs, and desires you currently lack that are necessary to overcome those things.
Overcoming all things is not a magical gift. It is a mechanical relationship between cause and effect. While other things can overcome you, or inhibit your joy and happiness, you still lack understanding that is available to you. It is through showing you what you lack that God guides you in obtaining all understanding.
The Lord inspired Isaiah to write the following promise to all those who follow him:
`No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17)`
Here the Lord explains both that all who seek and follow him have the promise of overcoming any challenge and that the means of this is to learn from him how to live.
God’s word is the only way that all things can be overcome. It is the only foundation that endures in spite of everything that can happen to you in this world:
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12)
And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. (1 Nephi 15:24)
More accurately, God’s word is the very set of things that endure in spite of everything that can happen to you in this world.
Remember that “his word” is not limited to spiritual subjects. The Lord created the earth and all things upon it. He knows better than anyone how things work—all things, including what we consider to be temporal. His way of seeing things—all things—is the best way to see things in terms of maximizing outcomes for our good. This is as true for things we consider deep and spiritual as it is for things we consider shallow and mundane, and all things in between.