"For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands."
Psalms 92:4
One thing that the scriptures are for is to show us the work of God's hands--how he has dealt with people in the past and the works he has done in the past so that we can know who he is, and what to expect in our own lives and our future dealings with God.
God teaches us a lot about ourselves through the scriptures as well. We see examples of different types of people and reactions to the Lord's commandments that we can relate to. The prophets were fallible, just like we are, and they didn't always do what God wanted the first time he asked.
The end result of God's work in our lives is always good, and something that brings joy. It doesn't always seem that way at first though, I know. The death of a loved one, or a sad medical diagnosis, or many things that we suffer because of the bad choices of others... or even our own choices... they don't seem good at the time, and it is hard to see the good in them anywhere. And yet God says to us, as he said to Joseph Smith, "...if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).
Today, with the advantage of hindsight, let's look back on our lives and think about why some of the bad or hard things in the past happened. Perhaps a job or a house was lost, but those things prepared us for a better situation later. Perhaps we lost people, to death or through alienation, and it taught us to be more reliant on God. There are going to be things that we can't see the good in as well, just like Jonah couldn't see the good in Nineveh, but the things that we *can* see show us the pattern that exists within all of God's works. God *will* make us glad and help us to triumph, if we have faith in him and stay the course of the gospel.
Psalms 92:4
One thing that the scriptures are for is to show us the work of God's hands--how he has dealt with people in the past and the works he has done in the past so that we can know who he is, and what to expect in our own lives and our future dealings with God.
God teaches us a lot about ourselves through the scriptures as well. We see examples of different types of people and reactions to the Lord's commandments that we can relate to. The prophets were fallible, just like we are, and they didn't always do what God wanted the first time he asked.
The end result of God's work in our lives is always good, and something that brings joy. It doesn't always seem that way at first though, I know. The death of a loved one, or a sad medical diagnosis, or many things that we suffer because of the bad choices of others... or even our own choices... they don't seem good at the time, and it is hard to see the good in them anywhere. And yet God says to us, as he said to Joseph Smith, "...if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).
Today, with the advantage of hindsight, let's look back on our lives and think about why some of the bad or hard things in the past happened. Perhaps a job or a house was lost, but those things prepared us for a better situation later. Perhaps we lost people, to death or through alienation, and it taught us to be more reliant on God. There are going to be things that we can't see the good in as well, just like Jonah couldn't see the good in Nineveh, but the things that we *can* see show us the pattern that exists within all of God's works. God *will* make us glad and help us to triumph, if we have faith in him and stay the course of the gospel.
No comments:
Post a Comment