And He Wept.

I love to bear testimony of the remarkable mercy that both my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ willingly impart.  It astounds me to realize how compassionate They are to Their righteous children, but also upon those who forsake Them, and at times even battle against Them.  The depth of Their love is something that I currently cannot fully comprehend.  Each day as I study my scriptures, I come across a verse, or a multitude of them, which seek to broaden my understanding of the extent and magnitude of the devotion which They hold for each one of us.  I truly do stand all amazed.  As my comprehension evolves my love and gratitude for Them is so overwhelming it could disassemble my heart. 

Additionally, my fervency in sharing the message of Their mercy is so strong because I was one who abandoned Them, but with time, sought after Their outstretched arm, and experienced the magnificence that comes from receiving unexplainable mercy and the most tender of affections.  It is a love with such power that our mortal existence becomes transfigured because we forever crave more of what we have encountered.  My heart will never tire, nor cease, to declare the actuality of Their mercy, of Their grace, and the way that it will transform a life. 

However, as I reflect on my sincere and intense devotion for Them, I gain an understanding that a great portion of my love is directly dedicated to Their celestial attribute of being just.  As deeply and fiercely as I adore them for Their abundant and extraordinary mercy, I identically cherish and praise Them for sustaining consistent and perpetual justice.  As I have pondered upon this element of who They are, and what it means to me, I have found a desire to convey why it holds such great significance to me.  My words will fall short of the feelings in my heart, but I must try.

Lack of Justice Would Redefine Their Love

If my Father in Heaven, the One I identify as my Father, who I came from and who I am laboring to return to, was unjust, could I ever have faith in His love for me?  I have decided that I could not, for if He was unjust in any facet of His character, He would possess the capability of demonstrating inconsistency.  Essentially, He would be a changeable being.  This quality would have the ability to spill into each aspect of who He is, denoting that His love could be altered by this inconstant trait.  His love could become unsteady.  Perhaps one moment His love would be abounding, while in another, His frustration, exasperation, or irritation with me would reorganize His heart, and His love would be slight and without the affection that I long for.  He would carry a fickle heart, one that changes depending upon my choices, unfavorable circumstances, or on His mood. 

This type of love is encountered and experienced frequently upon this mortal sphere, however, these characteristics of the heart are not found within our perfected Father.   He is, and forever will be, the One who stands so full of constant, devoted, unwavering love for His child.  There is no part of Him, and especially not within His love, that will ever be temperamental, erratic, or unstable.

In my fast and testimony meeting this month a brother in my ward stood and provided a touching testimony which uplifted my heart and correlated so well with the thoughts that I had been processing regarding this topic.  One sentence in particular has been ever circling my mind:  There is nothing that we can ever do to make our Heavenly Father fall out of love with us.  I know he believed the words that he spoke, and the sincerity which shone on his face explained that he had received such a conviction by way of experience.  I pondered to myself if I, too, could declare the same belief with such certitude.  

I must admit that I have struggled understanding my Heavenly Father’s love for me.  I have a difficult time comprehending how I matter when there are seas of faces around me, which I know are all of His children.  Relationships given in mortality to teach us of the love of our Heavenly Father, have been undependable in my life.  In my youth this factor led me to believe that He lacked love for me.  But as I grow and study of Him, I gain faith of my role in His life, and His role in mine.  However, nothing has clarified it to my heart quite as clearly as gaining an understanding that He is undeviating in every component of who and what He is, which parallels with His attribute of being a just God and Father.

That definition of resolute consistency flawlessly illustrates the unequaled love He carries-just for me.  And it will never change, because he is unchanging, and His love for me is included in that description.  He has the ability to love each and every one of His children in this exact manner, not collectively but individually. 

The quality of being just allows us to gain a testimony that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are anchored, loyal, and devoted to us.  It existed premortally, it is experienced within this mortal sphere, and it will prevail into the eternities everlasting.  Without understanding that they are just beings we would be unable to declare of their unending and enduring consistency, which combines to create so many of Their unique qualities which we treasure so dearly. 

Lack of Justice Creates a Deficiency of Trust

If my Savior, Jesus Christ, was unjust, could I depend upon His word?  I simply would not be able to.  If He did not value and exercise justice, His judgments would be biased, inequitable, and unfair.  I would not be able to have faith in His promises of release of bondage and the joy which comes from peace of conscience, because His bestowal of His power would be uneven. 

If His judgments were not swift and exact, His word could not be trusted, for it is what He has vowed will come to pass.  If His words are not precise or reliable, my trust cannot be placed with Him.  I could not have confidence that through faith and obedience I could be liberated from mortal persecutions, nor could I lay hold on the blessings which He has covenanted to.  This faith is what helps us to grasp hold of the iron rod and stay there. 

However, I know with all the certainty of my heart, that His word is absolutely unfailing, for I have received personal experience that has verified the truthfulness of what He declares, and I could never forsake what I know to be true.  There is not a syllable that falls from His mouth that is deceitful or insincere.  All that He releases is truth, can be trusted and depended upon, and will come to pass.  The scriptures are evidence of His reliability.  

One of my favorite things to do is to study prophecies and then review the chapters that document the prophecies as they come to pass.  The events that transpire do not fluctuate, vary, or alter even in the most microscopic of ways.  They happen exactly as they are promised, and this occurs with both consequences as well as blessings.  His word is trustworthy.

The scriptures are not the only place we find truth of His words.  The very best way to gain a testimony of His veracity is to apply it to your own life.  As you strictly apply the commandments and counsel that He releases through His own words, as well as the words of His servants, you will come to witness the overwhelming blessings in your own life, just as He has promised. 

We must be careful in recognizing these tremendous blessings.  Our carnal attitudes may look for temporal riches or worldly prosperity as an indication. However, they are rarely manifest in this form.  Why would the Lord shower us with earthly treasures that we will only leave behind when we exit this sphere?  They do not accompany us back home, nor do they assist in refining our spirits to enable us to gain entrance to the celestial kingdom.  They provide momentary happiness, not everlasting joy.  He cherishes us too profoundly to offer such fleeting gladness.

Instead, the Omniscient One most commonly sends blessings of eternal nature, treasures that will be ours even into the eternities, and ones that will embolden our desires to live righteous and productive mortal lives.  The depth of His love is manifest in the remarkable blessings He provides to those who love and serve Him. 

Another misunderstanding occurs in believing that when we follow His words we will be without affliction.  We may declare that Christ Himself promised that when we follow after Him we would be given peace.  But peace does not mean the absence of trial or tribulation, hence why He describes His blessing of peace as something that differs from a worldly definition. 

We must never forget that we are upon this earth to be tested, to learn and to grow and to be purified.  Trials, and the lessons which accompany them, are the experiences which are given to allow us to gain the development we sought after in coming to earth.  Additionally, they provide us with the opportunity to demonstrate to the Lord that we can be trusted.  Tribulation is not void by righteous living, and in my experience and opinion, comes more frequently to the righteous, as a sign of the increased confidence which the Lord has for you. 

The attribute of being just enables us to have complete confidence in each and every word that is released from our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We can have faith that what they say will assuredly come to pass.  This understanding empowers us towards righteousness, gives us the strength to shake off the bands of iniquity, and provides hope even in the most despairing times.  Their words have never fallen short, nor will they ever.  Our faith is secure and protected with Them. 

Satan’s War

Do we recognize the majesty that lies within the celestial attribute of being just?  Are we aware of what it offers us in our relationships with our Father in Heaven and with Jesus Christ?

I have gained so much from obtaining a testimony of this characteristic.  It has illuminated my understanding of my Father and Savior, and has also helped me identify some of the snares which Satan has laid, for he seeks to shatter and skew our interpretation of this divine quality. 

I believe there are a multitude of ways in which Satan impairs and weakens our comprehension of justice, but there are two that stand out most clearly to me.  The first is that he labors to deceive us by encouraging to define God as a ferocious and brutal Lord who finds pleasure in sending consequences upon His children.  The second is just the opposite.  He tries to manipulate us into believing that mercy will overthrow justice when we stand before Him on judgment day.  Both are absolute lies and can place us in danger if we accept them as truth. 

Satan’s Deception: God is Ferocious and Brutal

This specific deception of Satan’s produces feelings of fury in my heart.  It is openly defiling the Lord’s love for us.  Satan attacks God’s love frequently, and fiercely, because he knows that if we feel even an inkling of God’s affection our spirits will be sparked.  Our veiled memories of home will remain covered, but will make our hearts pound, helping us to recognize that we have felt of that love before, and that we yearn to have it back.  There is extreme power in the Lord’s love.  It is a type of strength that Satan could never touch because he is completely deficient in this area. 

Satan knows that the best way to make us avoid experiencing the love of God is to have us desert Him.  Satan always encourages abandonment by his followers.  This is because he is an expert at it.  The Lord never departs, this is something I am absolutely certain of.  Even when we make sinful choices, decisions that require the Spirit to depart from us, He is ever watching, ever waiting.  Our Father and Savior do not disclaim or renounce us, no matter how far we travel in hand with Satan.  What does happen is that we replace our Heavenly Father with the father of darkness.  We become his children, and we become enslaved to him and his wickedness. 

God does not rejoice in sending ill consequences upon His beloved children, no matter how much wickedness they have entertained.  His experience with Enoch, recorded in the book of Moses, describes in touching detail how extremely difficult it is for Him to watch any of His children suffer. 

As Enoch is with God, he is given the opportunity of having a vision of the extension of mortality.  Enoch witnesses the great evil and wickedness that spread over the earth.  As Enoch is observing these treacherous times, the Lord speaks to Him of the agony it causes Him:

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept, and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?...How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?

The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden gave I unto man his agency.  And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood…But behold…Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? Moses 7:28-29, 32-33, 37

I will never forget the first time that I read that scripture.  It was my first experience with feeling the Holy Ghost while studying the scriptures.  It sent a rush of emotion that overwhelmed my heart and I wept. 

Can you picture our Father, the one who so lovingly and devotedly organized us into spiritual beings?  He stayed with us, shared in premortal life at our sides, and taught us.  When we were prepared He sent us to earth to gain a body and to obtain the refinement that we so longed for that we could be like Him.  He has given us everything that we have, and enabled us to be everything that we are.  All He asks is that we follow His ways, which safe shield us from the destroyer, and to choose Him as our Father.  That sentence nearly breaks my heart in two.  They should choose me their Father…  A Father pleading for His children to accept and love Him in return. 

Why would the Lord rejoice in watching His children suffer, for they are the foundation of His work and His glory.  Each individual has significant importance and each one makes up His heart.  The Lord of all, the omniscient One with omnipotent power, weeps over His children who choose Satan over Him, and He sorrows to watch any one of His children experience affliction. 

However, He is a just Father.  He taught us what we needed to know before we came to this earth, and like many prophets have declared, we were apart of that counsel that decided upon what would be commanded during our mortal experience.  We agreed upon them.  After passing through the veil, He has given us all we need to recognize the truth and to accept Him.  When we elect to follow Satan and choose to discard Him, we acquire consequences because we have neglected the commandments essential for our protection.  Those ramifications will be experienced, and not because He is ferocious and brutal, but because He is just.  He would fail us as a Father to be any other way. 

Satan is ferocious.  Satan is brutal.  To desecrate and vandalize such a purity of love creates severe heartache.  Don’t accept this corrupted and malicious deception. 

Mercy Triumphs Justice

If Satan is not consumed, or is unsuccessful, in manipulating us into believing that God is a savage being, he gets busy seeking to make us forget that God carries the attribute of being just at all.  Like most celestial definitions within this telestial sphere, they become twisted and distorted.  Satan desires that we either neglect to accept justice as a quality of God altogether, or that we create our own definition of what being just entails.  Most commonly that modified description lacks any truth, and complies to our standard of living, helping us to feel comfortable in our sinful behaviors, and to rationalize our immoral or slothful decisions.  But in the end our personally-produced definitions will not change what is real. 

We are taught in the scriptures that Jesus Christ will stand before us on judgment day.  He is a just and merciful judge, but mercy never supersedes or displaces justice.  We will be held accountable for our unrepentant thoughts and actions.  It does not matter how hard we try to bend or reshape the definition of justice, it does not alter, nor does it conform to the ways and acceptances of the world. 

We must look to the Lord for an understanding of His ways.  There we will be given truth.  We should not look to man whose methods have never been, and never will be, God’s methods.  We must especially avoid allowing Satan to provide definitions of divine things, for they will always be polluted and are only provided to bind us to him. 

The Blessing of Understanding Justice

The quality of being just is of significant importance, and should not be overlooked, but should be treasured.  It allows us to have confidence in our Father and Savior’s love.  It empowers us to make righteous decisions and to accept and follow the commandments which God has given to assist us while on this earthly journey.  It confirms the honesty of every word spoken by the Lord, and helps us to prepare for Christ’s return to us, or our return to Him if it precedes. 

As time moves forward our ability to trust in earthly things continues to diminish.  Trust is broken, confidences are lost.  But there is a place where our hopes, faith, and expectations will never be crushed, and that is with our Heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ.  They are consistent, abiding, and enduring Gods.  They can be trusted in and relied upon.  As we recognize the glory of justice and how it allows us to come closer to Them, may we seek to acquire such an attribute that we may one day emulate the immensity of celestial goodness that they demonstrate so perfectly.