All good comes from and leads to God
Most people would agree that they desire joy, but few intentionally seek it, as demonstrated by the distance between what people say makes them happy and how they actually live. Those who honestly and diligently seek for joy will traverse a path where they actually live according to what they believe will produce it. As they do so, they will learn more accurate appraisals of what options are available in life, what they cost, and what benefit they provide. The path to greater joy begins broad and narrows as the limits of present beliefs are discovered and better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting are discovered and implemented.
All good things come from God,1 and all good things lead to God.2 All paths of improvement lead closer to God. Anyone who seeks to improve themselves will become more like God as they do so, even if they do not believe in God or understand what he is like.
Anyone who seeks improvement in life will find greater joy. However, there are barriers to how much joy can be found and how long it can be retained without learning and living correct beliefs about God.
There are limits to how much you can learn about God or live like him without believing that he exists and possessing correct ideas about his character. The more you improve your character, the more you will adopt the character of Christ, and the more you adopt the character of Christ, the more you will improve your character. The character of God does not exist outside of God, and the greatest joy does not exist outside of his character. Anyone who seeks improvement will eventually need to believe that God is real, learn what he is like, and begin to live like him in order to continue progressing.
The more you learn about reality and about the optimal path to obtain the greatest joy within it, the more you will learn about God, because he has already discovered this path and lives this way.
Conversely, the more you learn about God, the more you will learn about the optimal path to the greatest joy given reality.
God’s measure of the worth of things is based on a complete and correct understanding of what other options exist and the true longterm costs and benefits of those options. God knows the value of all things, he knows everything that could happen, he knows every available option, and his character is the best possible way he could be in order to yield the greatest possible joy.
All things do not have the same potential to provide joy. As you reach for and obtain what has and provides greater joy, you will learn more about how God is and become more like him. All things in creation can be arranged in a hierarchical network according to the joy they possess and provide. Those things closest to and most like God provide the greatest potential for joy. The greatest joy is available in God himself: in being with him and being like him. From that apex flows all cascading intensities of joy.
You should choose to be like God if you want what is best for yourself, others, and the world. To turn towards God is to turn towards what is best. To turn towards what is best is to turn towards God. To turn away from God is to turn away from what is best.3 To turn away from what is best is to turn away from God. Anything that seems better than following God is a mirage that will evaporate over time, usually replaced by something much worse than expected. To be different from God in any way is to experience less joy than you otherwise could. All sin reduces to the lie that you can find greater happiness in thinking, feeling, or acting contrary to how God would in your place.4 To the extent that your path deviates from what God would think, feel, or do in your place, you will deviate from the good you could otherwise be, give, and receive, and the happiness you could experience in the process. The path to the greatest good, and therefore the greatest happiness, is to learn everything you can about God, and to live everything you learn.5
The more you live up to how you believe God to be, the more content, confident, and guilt-free you will be
Guilt comes through willingly doing less than what you believe is best.6 If you feel guilty here and now, you will feel guilty forever.7 You can enjoy deep peace from and confidence with God through maintaining “a clear conscience before God,” as many of his servants have (see Mosiah 2:27).
Contentment comes through living the best you know how.8 If you reconcile your life to the best you know, you will feel freedom from guilt9 and enjoy peace of conscience.10 The more accurate your understanding of the ideal character, and the more fully you live up to the same, the more it will take to overcome your peace, and the more content11 and confident12 you will be.
The character of Christ is the ideal character. The fullness of the peace that is available in living as you believe the Lord would is beyond the ability of anything in this world to overcome.13 If you actively consider God’s character and will at all times,14 only doing what makes rational sense for the greatest long-term benefit, you will walk with a peace unknown by anyone who does anything less.15
The more like God you are, the happier you will be
The gospel is a process by which you receive more and better blessings from God by becoming more like him. Too many Christians seek the blessings of righteousness without seeking to be righteous.16 The gospel is not a cheat code to get more than you deserve in or after this life. Rather, it is an instruction manual on how to become better so that you deserve better than you presently do.17
God’s blessings are often coveted without consideration of God’s character. Goodness and enduring happiness are completely intertwined. The more like God you become, the more of his blessings you will enjoy.18 The way to obtain God’s blessings is to join him where he is.19
You become one with God by becoming like he is, not by getting him to inject his blessings into a life nothing like what he would live. The angel of God’s presence accompanied Israel because they were walking towards where he wanted them to be, not because he was going towards where they wanted to be. He was with them because they were following him, not because they had succeeded in getting him to follow them.
By nature, humans are miserable. The nature of God is the nature of happiness,20 because God is happier than any person. Adopting his nature will lead to greater happiness than any other path.21 The path to happiness is to learn and live the character of Christ.22 You cannot have greater or longer-lasting joy without learning more than you presently know about God.
To obtain the most intense joy, we must discover and emulate how God is. Similitude to God and joy are inescapably coupled. Because similarity to God comes by degrees, joy does as well. The more like God you become, the more intense the joy you will experience.23
The path to experiencing more intense joy is the path of learning what God knows, doing what he does, and wanting what he wants. To the degree that you learn about and live like Jesus, you will find that the degree of happiness you find and keep in life will increase.24
Obtaining and living God’s character is not just a duty or debt, but the path to the greatest possible outcomes. The best outcomes available to you are found and obtained through living as Jesus would in your place. We obtain more of God’s outcomes by learning and living more of God’s character. To the extent we learn about and apply his character, we become like he is, both in quality and in outcome.25 As you become more like God, you will encounter greater joy as what is less like God is replaced by what is more like God. As you think, feel, and act as you sincerely believe Jesus would in your place, you are on the path to becoming the greatest person you can be and experiencing the greatest joy you can ever have.
The purpose of life is to have greater eternal joy by becoming more like God.26 The more you know about and live like Jesus, the more joy you will have, and the longer it will last.
The more like God you are, the longer your joy will last
A great deal of perceived happiness is fleeting, as it is based on an erroneous understanding of reality and limited experience with it.27
The breadth, depth, and intensity of reality is vast and virtually unknown to most.
Apparent happiness can rot the instant it is exposed to information that erodes the assumptions and presumptions it is based on. Apparent happiness can disappear in a moment when we:
- Learn of the existence of something better than what we have.28
- Learn that the cost of what we seek or have is much greater than we thought.29
- Learn that the benefit of what we seek or have is much less than we thought.30
- Learn that the value of what we have or seek does not endure for as long as we had hoped.31
This loss of perceived value is an unavoidable part of the purpose of life,32 for how else would we gain the motivation necessary to seek something better or experience greater joy than we would otherwise have when we find it?33 God’s intent is not that we endlessly churn over lost joy, but that we are able to increasingly approach greater joy that is longer lasting than what we had before, eventually obtaining maximal joy that can endure all circumstances here and hereafter.34
God has the greatest enduring joy. If you desire greater lasting joy, you will find it by discovering and assimilating more of God’s character.
You will have greater enduring joy through doing what God would do in your place than anything else.35
God’s knowledge of all things past, present, and future36 uniquely positions him to know what is of greatest lasting worth. God’s happiness is not based on ignorance. God knows “things as they really are, and... things as they really will be.” (Jacob 4:13) He lives according to his knowledge, which yields “a never-ending state of happiness.” (Mosiah 2:41)
God’s character is the optimized path to the greatest enduring happiness given reality. God’s character is not just different, it is better.37 In fact, it is the best.38 God’s knowledge, beliefs, and desires are all optimally tuned39 to yield the greatest joy for himself and all others across the duration of eternity.40 There is no other set of traits that will yield greater joy for longer across the duration of eternity.41
What provides the greatest lasting joy is not obvious. Gaining a more correct idea of the options available and a more accurate estimate of the lasting value each provides is an important part of the purpose of life. God’s character is optimal, tested, and proven. You will never devise a better way to be than how God already is. As you learn and live more like God, you will gain a more correct idea of the choices available to you in life42 and which of them provide the greatest lasting worth.43
The greatest and most enduring joy comes from internal changes, which also make possible the greatest and most enduring external joy
Happiness is commonly denominated in circumstances beyond the control of the individual. As such, when those circumstances change unfavorably, the individual’s happiness is vanquished.44 Any joy that comes through external circumstances can only endure as long as your external circumstances don’t change.
Happiness that lies beyond external reduction comes from internal refinement. Enduring increases in happiness come through improvements to your character.45 There is no way to obtain greater and longer-lasting joy except through improving your character. As you improve who you are, you increase the proportion of your happiness that comes internally from what you do for the world rather than the external portion that comes from what you receive from the world. While this doesn’t mean you cease receiving good through and from external sources, it does mean that you increase your supply of joy that cannot be taken away by external changes because it is generated from within. Any person who can obtain and maintain a fullness of joy in spite of external circumstances will be immeasurably happier than anyone whose happiness comes because of external circumstances.
The happiness found in God cannot be diminished by what lies outside of the control of the individual, and as such, is the only kind that endures all things. There is no external circumstance that can generate the kind of joy that internal alignment with God can. Meanwhile, the greatest external sources of joy are only available to those who align their character with God, and to the extent they do.46 For example, when Jesus appeared to his followers on the American continent after his resurrection, he described feeling a fullness of joy that could not have been experienced except through his having perfectly lived as the Father would have during his mortal life.47
As one learns more about and lives more like Jesus, the depth of joy experienced and its independence from external circumstances increases. The Lord has overcome all things. An important part of this accomplishment is that he has attained joy that is beyond the power of anyone else to remove without his consent. Although the poor choices of his children cause God tremendous sorrow, no one can overcome his joy.
Happiness is a subjective construct. It comes from your sense of perceived value in what you are, have, experience, and give. The enduring nature of the Lord’s happiness comes from how he is and what he values. As you learn to value the character of God above all else, you will increasingly feel joy from your similarity to him, no matter the cost of achieving it, and no matter what others do or don’t do because of it.
God’s way provides joy here and now, not just hereafter
God intends for us to have joy here, not just hereafter.48 This life is an opportunity for us to learn and live what is necessary to be happy forever.49 Life features a myriad of challenges that are useful to help us see aspects of who we are that are inadequate to yield eternal happiness. Unfortunately, most people manage to cope with the parts of reality that they do not like or cannot handle by ignoring or escaping from them. This human tendency pervades common Christianity, where the desire to avoid reality dominates the willingness to overcome it. It is easy to ignore aspects of your life that rob you of joy through using synthetic sources of pleasure: drugs, entertainment, work, exercise, social activities, and relationships, but they will not help you become a better person or any happier hereafter. Whatever has power to make you miserable here will also have power to make you miserable hereafter,50 and while you can make use of dishonest distractions here, none of them will work there. This life is given as an opportunity to learn and live principles that will bring you greater joy forever.51 Any principles that have the power to bring you joy after this life will also bring you joy in this life.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a means or reason to ignore or avoid problems, but a means and reason to overcome them.52 The Lord overcame all things, and it is only through learning and living his character that you can do the same. The mechanism for joy hereafter is learning and living the character of God while you are here.53 To the extent you seek happiness that can endure any circumstance in life, you seek the character of Christ, and to the extent you obtain the character of Christ, you will find happiness that can endure any circumstance in life.
As you learn and live the character of Christ, you will experience an increasing intensity and duration of joy here and now. You will find yourself overcoming more of the things that take away your joy and obtaining more of the things that provide it. Those who learn more about Jesus and live more like him will find that increasingly greater opposition is required to disrupt their joy and that they are able to hold onto greater joy for longer.
Growing more like Jesus does not mean that life’s trials will stop flowing through your life, or that your life will be free from any unpleasantness, challenges, or sorrows. In fact, as you grow more like the Lord, who faced all possible mortal challenges, you will find that trials come with increased occurrence and intensity,54 but you will likewise learn and live what he did to overcome them.55 All good things carry a price, and that price is typically required to be paid up front. The paths that yield the greatest lasting joy frequently begin with willful suffering—sometimes for a prolonged period—but they always pay dividends that far outweigh the cost. The key indication that you are on the Lord’s path is progress. Those learning more about and living like Christ will grow in their ability to experience greater joy and hold onto it for longer, in the face of greater challenges than before.56
Footnotes
- 1. For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing. (Moroni 7:22) ↩
- 2. And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me—that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world. (Ether 4:12) ↩
- 3. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. (John 6:66-68) ↩
- 4. “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.” (Alma 41:10) Wickedness means deliberately acting against your sincere understanding of what is best. ↩
- 5. Therefore, remain ever-obedient to the summation of all you’ve ever learned about the Son until now. As you continue doing this, you will continue to learn more about and become more like the Son and the Father. This is the state he has called us to, eternal life itself. (1 John 2:24-25, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 6. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (James 4:17) And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity. (Moroni 10:22) ↩
- 7. Then will ye longer deny the Christ, or can ye behold the Lamb of God? Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws? Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell. (Mormon 9:3-4) ↩
- 8. “And by him all that believe are justified from all things....” (Acts 13:39) Scripturally speaking, to “believe” includes living up to what you believe, and to be “justified” is to attain blamelessness, or freedom from guilt. ↩
- 9. And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath...taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son. (Alma 24:10) ↩
- 10. And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them. (Mosiah 4:3) ↩
- 11. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) ↩
- 12. The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1) ↩
- 13. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. (Isaiah 54:14) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. (3 Nephi 11:39) ↩
- 14. Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. (D&C 6:36) ↩
- 15. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8) ↩
- 16. “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.” (James Allen, “As A Man Thinketh”) ↩
- 17. And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it. (Mosiah 2:41) ↩
- 18. You will understand what this scripture says very differently after learning the lessons taught in this book: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake....He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.” (Psalm 115:1, 13-14) ↩
- 19. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Isaiah 43:2) ↩
- 20. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness. (Alma 41:11) ↩
- 21. 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) ↩
- 22. And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness. (2 Nephi 5:27) ↩
- 23. ...he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy. (Mosiah 4:20) ↩
- 24. If any man desires to do His will (God’s pleasure), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My own authority. (John 7:17, AMP) ↩
- 25. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. (Moroni 7:48) ↩
- 26. ...these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves....Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth....That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:13, 17, 21-23) ↩
- 27. “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.” (Proverbs 15:21) The path to God’s happiness is most clearly demonstrated by those who have endured the greatest suffering. One who has joy in spite of great pain is much more likely to have an accurate and abundant understanding of God than one who has seemingly greater joy but who lacks as much experience with sorrow. ↩
- 28. And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. (Moses 1:9-10) ↩
- 29. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? (Matthew 19:23-25) ↩
- 30. I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:16-17, NIV) ↩
- 31. And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21) ↩
- 32. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:2) ↩
- 33. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:4-7) ↩
- 34. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.....that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain... (John 15:11, 16) ↩
- 35. Righteousness is what God would do in your place. Iniquity is anything else. Those who choose iniquity choose something other than the joy that is only available in God: “...ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.” (Helaman 13:38) ↩
- 36. 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) ↩
- 37. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says Jehovah. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9, Gileadi Translation) ↩
- 38. And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 3:19) ↩
- 39. As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. (Psalm 18:30) ↩
- 40. Let them praise the character of the Lord: for his character alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. (Psalm 148:13, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 41. And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen. (2 Nephi 31:21) ↩
- 42. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Psalms 36:9) And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. (D&C 84:46) ↩
- 43. Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ. (Moroni 7:19) ↩
- 44. “The ordinary man places his life’s happiness in things external to him, in property, rank, wife and children, friends, society, and the like, so that when he loses them or finds them disappointing, the foundation of his happiness is destroyed. In other words, his center of gravity is not in himself; it is constantly changing its place, with every wish and whim.” — Arthur Schopenhauer ↩
- 45. The only way it gets better for you is if you get better. (Jim Rohn) ↩
- 46. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness. (Alma 27:18) ↩
- 47. And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full. (3 Nephi 17:20) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11) ↩
- 48. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13) ↩
- 49. The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh. And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness. (Alma 41:5-6) ↩
- 50. And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still. (Mormon 9:14) ↩
- 51. 28 Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God (Mormon 9:28) ↩
- 52. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33) Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21) ↩
- 53. And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one; (3 Nephi 28:10) ↩
- 54. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. (Matthew 10:24) ↩
- 55. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:7) ↩
- 56. That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. (D&C 50:24) ↩