What Does Jesus Christ Promise That the World Can't?

Liahona March 2024

 

Cosmic Vending Machine

 

Our Relationship with God

By Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Some misunderstand the promises of God to mean that obedience to Him yields specific outcomes on a fixed schedule. They might think, “If I diligently serve a full-time mission, God will bless me with a happy marriage and children” or “If I refrain from doing schoolwork on the Sabbath, God will bless me with good grades” or “If I pay tithing, God will bless me with that job I’ve been wanting.” If life doesn’t fall out precisely this way or according to an expected timetable, they may feel betrayed by God. But things are not so mechanical in the divine economy. We ought not to think of God’s plan as a cosmic vending machine where we (1) select a desired blessing, (2) insert the required sum of good works, and (3) the order is promptly delivered.

Trust in His Promises

 

Living “as Though” God’s Promises Have Been Fulfilled

By Lori Newbold

Young Women General Advisory Council

2. Recognize His Hand

I think there have been many times in life when I was so focused on the seemingly more significant promises or a specific promise I was hoping for that I missed what the Lord was doing for me in the present. We tend to find evidence for whatever we are looking for. If we look for fulfillment, we will see the Lord’s companionship in our day. We will see doors He opened for us. We will see “assurances” (Alma 58:11) He sent us.

One way I learned to see His companionship came from President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, who taught about keeping a daily record of how we’ve seen the hand of God reaching out to bless us each day.⁴ This daily reflection and recording may have changed me more than any one thing. Through this, I began to see that the Lord was walking with me each day and was fulfilling more promises than I could have imagined.

We live in a world where many focus on the lack in their lives. Too many of us start the day with thoughts that we aren’t enough and end it feeling like we’ve fallen short. We may feel like we don’t have enough time, money, energy, courage, hope, faith, and so on. This type of perspective makes it very hard to see any fulfillment of promises.

The hymn “As Now We Take the Sacrament” states, “We contemplate thy lasting grace, thy boundless charity.”⁵ For years, my preparation for the sacrament focused on the mistakes I had made the week(s) before and the lack I had demonstrated. All I could see was how far I was from being like Christ. After the Spirit taught me through these lyrics, I began to focus on how I had seen His “lasting grace” and “boundless charity” during the past week. As I reflected, I saw the fulfillment of promises. I saw that He had been with me. He had comforted, enabled, and strengthened me. He had kept His promises....

Trusting in His promises is not always an easy choice. Waiting upon the Lord requires a faith in Jesus Christ that can feel, at times, like it is almost more than we can muster. Yet Alma testified, “He will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers” (Alma 37:17). God’s promises are sure, and I know that the Savior will offer any help and support we need as we seek to come to know and trust our Father in Heaven, who will verify “his word … in every particular” (Alma 25:17). For truly “there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart” (1 Kings 8:23).

Lori Newbold, "Living as Though God's Promises Have Been Fulfilled," Liahona, Feb 2022, pg 34-35.