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)