God does not respond to what you want , he responds to what you deserve. If you want to live a life of faith, you absolutely have to learn and live by the principle of justice. You will always eventually get what you deserve, nothing more and nothing less, no matter how impossible it seems.
6 [God] will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God. (Romans 2)
God follows the law of the harvest. You reap what you sow:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
If you only say you desire a harvest, but never get around to planting, you will never have a harvest. If you do not sow, you will not reap.
You only reap what you sow. You do not reap according to your fancy or your wishes. You reap according to what you have sown. If you sow peas, you will not get wheat.
You reap according to how you plant and care for what you have sown. If the effort you put forth does not match the outcome you seek, you will not reap what you intend. The effort must be the right type and quantity that leads to the outcome you seek. If you sow wheat, but do not do it in the way it must be done, you will not get the same harvest as the person who does it in the proper way.
If you are willing to do whatever it takes to obtain what you desire, you will find yourself with everything you desire. This is because God is just. This does not mean that you will have everything you desire in the minute you achieve what it takes to obtain it. In order to provide us with the opportunity to have faith, sometimes what we deserve is delayed. However, it will always come.
Some shrink at the thought of God’s justice. They recoil at the thought that they must do the works of Abraham to receive the reward of Abraham, or the works of Moses to receive the reward of Moses. However, the thought of God’s justice should cause rejoicing—that no matter where one starts in life, anyone can receive the reward of Abraham if they will merely do the works of Abraham, and anyone can receive the reward of Moses if they will merely do the works of Moses. As mere men, Moses and Abraham obtained the approval and blessing of God. If they can do it, anyone can.
Coupled with the beautiful truth that God has given all people the choice to ascend as high as the level of law they are willing to seek and obey, God’s justice becomes the pathway to every desire of a person’s heart.
It is not a light thing when God reveals to us the path to what we seek. Awareness of the path to what we seek comes with consequences for turning away. When we have access to this information, we are held accountable for it:
But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:48)
3 For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.
4 Ye call upon my name for revelations, and I give them unto you; and inasmuch as ye keep not my sayings, which I give unto you, ye become transgressors; and justice and judgment are the penalty which is affixed unto my law. (D&C 82)
Those who refuse to act on the instructions God gives them will eventually be subjected to the removal of not just the outcome that was offered to them, but even what they had before:
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. (Matthew 25:29)
The Lord explained this principle through the prophet Hosea by comparing Israel to an adulterous wife, whose righteous punishment not only terminated her marriage, but removed all she received through the marriage to that point:
1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was <u>born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land,</u> and slay her with thirst.
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. (Hosea 2)
Live so that the outpouring of God’s justice renders blessings to you. When you are searching for the path to obtain the outcome you seek, you should always ask yourself: “what set of actions would be sufficient so that someone could say they deserve this?” And then you should do all of those things.