Every outcome has a path that leads to it, as ordained by God before the world was. Every outcome is like a lock, and there exist a certain set of conditions which comprise the key:
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130)
God knows the path to what you seek:
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)
He provides instructions for how to act:
...I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. (D&C 82:9)
He does everything in his power to invite and entice you toward the path that leads to what you desire.
As our desires grow towards outcomes of higher value, the cost of walking the paths to these outcomes increases.
The greatest outcome—obtaining and being filled with the love of God—costs everything. As we ascend in the object of our desire, we will need stronger tools to cope with the darkness that comes attached to greater light.
Hope in God can help us in hard times. In the hardest times, hope in God is the only thing sufficient to endure. It is through reliance upon the character of Jesus Christ that we find the motivation to endure the most bleak and hopeless situations:
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8)
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:4)
Promises from God are another tool that helps us endure more difficult paths. When we faithfully carry out the Lord’s instructions, we obtain promises from him:
9 ...I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation.
10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. (D&C 82)
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. (Ephesians 1:13)
It is through our faithful action that we guarantee the fulfillment of the promises we obtain:
And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true. (D&C 76:53)
He strengthens us with the promise that all things we endure in obedience to him will be for our good:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
At all times and in all places, no matter how hopeless things may seem, God is at the helm. He is not aloof. He is not merely allowing things to happen. He perfectly knows the outcome of every situation. His law perfectly controls all things while providing free choice of all men. His perceived absence is not his actual absence, and like all other things, it is perfectly calculated to advance our benefit:
1 I Am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and <u>every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.</u>
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of <u>itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.</u>
5 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 <u>can do nothing. (John 15)</u>
When you trust in God, you can lean heavily on the promises you have obtained. These consist of both general laws and promises, as well as things he has taught to you personally.
God’s promises to Abraham inspired his faithful actions over a lifetime. For example, he complied with God’s commandment to sacrifice Isaac because he believed God’s promise that through Isaac God would raise many nations:
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4)
It is hard to imagine a more impossible situation than believing that your young son would have uncountable posterity as you raise a knife to kill him. Yet, Abraham believed. Abraham knew what it means to walk by faith, not sight.
Another tool to assist us through hard trials is trust in God’s justice. Faith is not used to bypass the laws of justice, but rather to make a way for people to benefit from justice and entice people to come up to it. Obtaining the greatest outcomes requires leveraging the law of justice. Some outcomes require the Lord to subject you to unmerited suffering, figuratively hiding his presence from you, for a time, to give you the blessing of exercising faith and choosing to act even against great opposition:
Then will Jehovah delay his coming, that he may favor you; out of mercy toward you he will remain aloof. For Jehovah is the God of justice; blessed are all who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18, Gileadi Translation)
Even during the most intense trial of faith, when we may be tempted to feel completely alone, we are assured by God’s word that he is still completely in control of our situation. Even when you feel a complete absence of his presence, you can rely on your idea of his character, the evidences of his past involvement with you and with the world, and the rational reasons you have for believing he is worthy of your trust. Even when his presence is not obvious to us, he is so thoroughly involved that it is by him that we are kept alive from one moment to another:
...[God] is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another... (Mosiah 2:21)
The flesh tempts us to judge after our sight, which is to say according to our present and past experiences and the culture and customs we have received. Faith inspires us to believe according to the ideas God has given us of the future, and according to our past observation of the fulfillment of his promises:
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)
Faith provides an alternative to relying on how we feel in the midst of a fallen world. It provides us a path to act contrary to human bias, deprived culture, limited predisposition, blind prejudice, and present pleasure. In so doing, faith expands our potential for action. Faith motivates us towards choices that improve us.