The words of eternal life are worth obtaining because of what they yield hereafter, but they also carry worthwhile benefits in this life. Life is full of challenges that can overcome you. Life’s challenges can steal from you the joy you presently have and even rob from you the joy you experienced in the past.1 The words of eternal life increase the joy you experience2 and keep3 in spite of the challenges of life. Those who search for the character of Christ and apply all they learn as they learn it will increasingly obtain greater power to obtain and keep peace4 and well-being.5
The words of eternal life include the wisdom, beliefs, and skills to overcome what presently overcomes you.6 As you contemplate how the words of eternal life are sequential and hierarchical steps from how a person is and how they see everything else to how God is and how he sees everything, you can begin to see how the stream of the words of eternal life form a layered foundation, each with the ability to solve increasingly difficult problems.7 One component of the words of eternal life highlights the fact that the foundation is already built. As you live the best you know and do all you know to keep learning, you will be protected8 from what would otherwise overcome you.9 The other component of the words of eternal life highlights the process of continuous growth, where you are trained to be able to overcome what overcomes you.10
Footnotes
- 1. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) ↩
- 2. 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) ↩
- 3. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11) ↩
- 4. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:6) ↩
- 5. 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) ↩
- 6. So everyone who hears these words [logos] of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock. (Matthew 7:24, AMP) ↩
- 7. ...I am the rock, and upon this rock I will build my house, using rocks. And all of hell cannot overpower the people of my house, because they are built upon me, and I will overcome all things. This is the secret by which you can obtain all power in heaven and earth: Learn my Father’s will, and do all things that lie in your power to bring everything into greater alignment with him, and the impact of your actions will endure eternally. (Matthew 16:18-19, Author’s Reflection) ↩
- 8. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:2728) ↩
- 9. 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) ↩
- 10. Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked— (Helaman 3:29) ↩