“He Delighteth in Mercy”

By Elder Dale G. Renlund

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

As followers of Jesus Christ, and as Latter-day Saints, we strive—and are encouraged to strive—to do better and be better. Perhaps you have wondered, as I have, “Am I doing enough?” “What else should I be doing?” or “How can I, as a flawed person, qualify to ‘dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness’?”

The Old Testament prophet Micah asked the question this way: “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?” Micah satirically wondered whether even exorbitant offerings might be enough to compensate for sin, saying: “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten [thousand] … rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for … the sin of my soul?”

The answer is no. Good deeds are not sufficient. Salvation is not earned. Not even the vast sacrifices Micah knew were impossible can redeem the smallest sin. Left to our own devices, the prospect of returning to live in God’s presence is hopeless.

Without the blessings that come from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, we can never do enough or be enough by ourselves. The good news, though, is that because of and through Jesus Christ we can become enough. All people will be saved from physical death by the grace of God, through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if we turn our hearts to God, salvation from spiritual death is available to all “through the Atonement of [Jesus] Christ … by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” We can be redeemed from sin to stand clean and pure before God. As Micah explained, “[God] hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Micah’s direction on turning our hearts to God and qualifying for salvation contains three interconnected elements. To do justly means acting honorably with God and with other people. We act honorably with God by walking humbly with Him. We act honorably with others by loving mercy. To do justly is therefore a practical application of the first and second great commandments, to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind … [and to] love thy neighbour as thyself.”

To do justly and walk humbly with God is to intentionally withdraw our hand from iniquity, walk in His statutes, and remain authentically faithful. A just person turns away from sin and toward God, makes covenants with Him, and keeps those covenants. A just person chooses to obey the commandments of God, repents when falling short, and keeps on trying.

When the resurrected Christ visited the Nephites, He explained that the law of Moses had been replaced by a higher law. He instructed them not to “offer up … sacrifices and … burnt offerings” any longer but to offer “a broken heart and a contrite spirit.” He also promised, “And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost.” When we receive and use the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, we can enjoy the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and be taught all things that we should do, including how to walk humbly with God.

Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for sin and salvation from spiritual death are available to all who have such a broken heart and contrite spirit. A broken heart and contrite spirit prompt us to joyfully repent and try to become more like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. As we do so, we receive the Savior’s cleansing, healing, and strengthening power. We not only do justly and walk humbly with God; we also learn to love mercy the way that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do.

God delights in mercy and does not begrudge its use. In Micah’s words to Jehovah, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, … will have compassion upon us,” and will “cast all … sins into the depths of the sea.” To love mercy as God does is inseparably connected to dealing justly with others and not mistreating them.

The importance of not mistreating others is highlighted in an anecdote about Hillel the Elder, a Jewish scholar who lived in the first century before Christ. One of Hillel’s students was exasperated by the complexity of the Torah—the five books of Moses with their 613 commandments and associated rabbinic writings. The student challenged Hillel to explain the Torah using only the time that Hillel could stand on one foot. Hillel may not have had great balance but accepted the challenge. He quoted from Leviticus, saying, “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Hillel then concluded: “That which is hateful unto you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah; the rest is commentary. Go forth and study.”

Always dealing honorably with others is part of loving mercy. Consider a conversation I overheard decades ago in the emergency department of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. A patient, Mr. Jackson, was a courteous, pleasant man who was well known to the hospital staff. He had previously been hospitalized multiple times for the treatment of alcohol-related diseases. On this occasion, Mr. Jackson returned to the hospital for symptoms that would be diagnosed as inflammation of the pancreas caused by alcohol consumption.

Toward the end of his shift, Dr. Cohen, a hardworking and admired physician, evaluated Mr. Jackson and determined that hospitalization was warranted. Dr. Cohen assigned Dr. Jones, the physician next up in rotation, to admit Mr. Jackson and oversee his treatment.

Dr. Jones had attended a prestigious medical school and was just beginning her postgraduate studies. This grueling training was often associated with sleep deprivation, which likely contributed to Dr. Jones’s negative response. Confronted with her fifth admission of the night, she complained loudly to Dr. Cohen. She felt it was unfair that she would have to spend many hours caring for Mr. Jackson, because his predicament was, after all, self-inflicted.

Dr. Cohen’s emphatic response was spoken in almost a whisper. He said, “Dr. Jones, you became a physician to care for people and work to heal them. You didn’t become a physician to judge them. If you don’t understand the difference, you have no right to train at this institution.” Following this correction, Dr. Jones diligently cared for Mr. Jackson during the hospitalization.

Mr. Jackson has since died. Both Dr. Jones and Dr. Cohen have had stellar careers. But at a critical moment in her training, Dr. Jones needed to be reminded to do justly, to love mercy, and to care for Mr. Jackson without being judgmental.

Over the years, I have benefited from that reminder. Loving mercy means that we do not just love the mercy God extends to us; we delight that God extends the same mercy to others. And we follow His example. “All are alike unto God,” and we all need spiritual treatment to be helped and healed. The Lord has said, “Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another.”

Jesus Christ exemplified what it means to do justly and to love mercy. He freely associated with sinners, treating them honorably and with respect. He taught the joy of keeping God’s commandments and sought to lift rather than condemn those who struggled. He did denounce those who faulted Him for ministering to people they deemed unworthy. Such self-righteousness offended Him and still does.

To be Christlike, a person does justly, behaving honorably with both God and other people. A just person is civil in words and action and recognizes that differences in outlook or belief do not preclude genuine kindness and friendship. Individuals who do justly “will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably” one with another.

To be Christlike, a person loves mercy. People who love mercy are not judgmental; they manifest compassion for others, especially for those who are less fortunate; they are gracious, kind, and honorable. These individuals treat everyone with love and understanding, regardless of characteristics such as race, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and tribal, clan, or national differences. These are superseded by Christlike love.

To be Christlike, a person chooses God, walks humbly with Him, seeks to please Him, and keeps covenants with Him. Individuals who walk humbly with God remember what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done for them.

Am I doing enough? What else should I be doing? The action we take in response to these questions is central to our happiness in this life and in the eternities. The Savior does not want us to take salvation for granted. Even after we have made sacred covenants, there is a possibility that we may “fall from grace and depart from the living God.” So we should “take heed and pray always” to avoid falling “into temptation.”

But at the same time, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do not want us to be paralyzed by continual uncertainty during our mortal journey, wondering whether we have done enough to be saved and exalted. They surely do not want us to be tormented by mistakes from which we have repented, thinking of them as wounds that never heal, or to be excessively apprehensive that we might stumble again.

We can assess our own progress. We can know “that the course of life [that we are] pursuing is according to God’s will” when we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. We assimilate the attributes of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ into our character, and we love one another.

When you do these things, you will follow the covenant path and qualify to “dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.” Your souls will be infused with the glory of God and with the light of everlasting life. You will be filled with incomprehensible joy. I testify that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and He lovingly and joyfully extends His mercy to all. Don’t you love it? In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

See Russell M. Nelson, “We Can Do Better and Be Better,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 67–69.

Mosiah 2:41.

Micah 6:6.

Micah 6:7.

See Ephesians 2:8; 2 Nephi 31:19; Alma 22:14; 42:14; 3 Nephi 18:32; Moroni 6:4; Doctrine and Covenants 3:20.

See 3 Nephi 27:19.

See Alma 41:8; Moroni 10:32–33.

See 1 Corinthians 15:22; Alma 11:42–45.

Articles of Faith 1:3.

Micah 6:8; see similar admonitions in Alma 41:14; Doctrine and Covenants 11:12; Articles of Faith 1:13.

See Matthew 22:35–40. For a discussion of the relationship between the first and second great commandments, see Russell M. Nelson, “Teach Us Tolerance and Love,” Ensign, May 1994, 69–71; Dallin H. Oaks, “Two Great Commandments,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2019, 73–76.

See Ezekiel 18:8–9.

3 Nephi 9:19–20; see also Doctrine and Covenants 59:8.

See 2 Nephi 32:5.

See 2 Nephi 2:7.

Micah 7:18–19.

Leviticus 19:18.

See Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a:6; see also jewishvirtuallibrary.org/rabbi-hillel-quotes-on-judaism-and-israel. Of note, Hillel the Elder was the grandfather of Gamaliel, who is mentioned in Acts 5:34. Gamaliel was the teacher of Saul of Tarsus. See Isidore Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopedia (1903), “Gamaliel I,” 5:558–59.

The names for Mr. Jackson, Dr. Cohen, and Dr. Jones are not their own.

2 Nephi 26:33.

Mosiah 23:7.

See Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843],” 1459, josephsmithpapers.org.

See Luke 15:1–2.

Mosiah 4:13.

See Moses 7:33.

Doctrine and Covenants 20:32–34.

See Boyd K. Packer, “The Plan of Happiness,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 28. President Packer said: “When the repentance process is complete, no scars remain because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. … The Atonement … can wash clean every stain no matter how difficult or how long or how many times repeated. The Atonement can put you free again to move forward, cleanly and worthily, to pursue that path that you have chosen in life.”

Lectures on Faith (1985), 38.

Mosiah 2:41.

See Alma 19:6.

See Doctrine and Covenants 11:13.

By Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Today is April 6, the anniversary of Jesus Christ restoring His latter-day Church—and part of the Easter season, when we joyfully testify of Jesus Christ’s perfect life, atoning sacrifice, and glorious Resurrection.

A Chinese story begins as a man’s son finds a beautiful horse.

“How fortunate,” the neighbors say.

“We’ll see,” says the man.

Then the son falls off the horse and is permanently injured.

“How unfortunate,” the neighbors say.

“We’ll see,” says the man.

A conscripting army comes but doesn’t take the injured son.

“How fortunate,” the neighbors say.

“We’ll see,” says the man.

This fickle world often feels tempest tossed, uncertain, sometimes fortunate, and—too often—unfortunate. Yet, in this world of tribulation, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Indeed, as we walk uprightly and remember our covenants, “all things shall work together for your good.”

All things for our good.

A remarkable promise! Comforting assurance from God Himself! In a miraculous way, the purpose of Creation and the nature of God are to know beginning and end, to bring about all that is for our good, and to help us become sanctified and holy through Jesus Christ’s grace and Atonement.

Jesus Christ’s Atonement can deliver and redeem us from sin. But Jesus Christ also intimately understands our every pain, affliction, sickness, sorrow, separation. In time and eternity, His triumph over death and hell can make all things right. He helps heal the broken and disparaged, reconcile the angry and divided, comfort the lonely and isolated, encourage the uncertain and imperfect, and bring forth miracles possible only with God.

We sing hallelujah and shout hosanna! With eternal power and infinite goodness, in God’s plan of happiness all things can work together for our good. We can face life with confidence and not fear.

Left on our own, we may not know our own good. When “I choose me,” I am also choosing my own limitations, weaknesses, inadequacies. Ultimately, to do the most good, we must be good. Since none save God is good, we seek perfection in Jesus Christ. We become our truest, best selves only as we put off the natural man or woman and become a child before God.

With our trust and faith in God, trials and afflictions can be consecrated for our good. Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt, later saved his family and people. The Prophet Joseph Smith’s incarceration in Liberty Jail taught him “these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” Lived with faith, trials and sacrifices we would never choose can bless us and others in ways never imagined.

We increase faith and trust in the Lord that all things can work together for our good as we gain eternal perspective; understand our trials may be “but for a small moment”; recognize affliction can be consecrated for our gain; acknowledge accidents, untimely death, debilitating illness, and disease are part of mortality; and trust loving Heavenly Father does not give trials to punish or judge. He would not give a stone to someone asking for bread nor a serpent to one asking for a fish.

When trials come, often what we most want is for someone to listen and be with us. In the moment, cliché answers can be unhelpful, however comforting their intent. Sometimes we yearn for someone who will grieve, ache, and weep with us; let us express pain, frustration, sometimes even anger; and acknowledge with us there are things we do not know.

When we trust God and His love for us, even our greatest heartbreaks can, in the end, work together for our good.

I remember the day I received word of a serious car accident which involved those I love. At such times, in anguish and faith, we can only say with Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Across the worldwide Church, some 3,500 stakes and districts and some 30,000 wards and branches provide refuge and safety. But within our stakes and wards, many faithful families and individuals confront difficult challenges, even while knowing that (without yet knowing how) things will work together for our good.

In Huddersfield, England, Brother Samuel Bridgstock was diagnosed with stage-four cancer shortly before the calling of a new stake president. Given his dire diagnosis, he asked his wife, Anna, why he would even go to be interviewed.

“Because,” Sister Bridgstock said, “you’re going to be called as stake president.”

Initially given a year or two to live, President Bridgstock (who is here today) is now in his fourth year of service. He has good and hard days. His stake is rallying with increased faith, service, and kindness. It is not easy, but his wife and family live with faith, gratitude, and understandable sadness they trust will become eternal joy through Jesus Christ’s restoring Atonement.

When we are still, open, and reverent, we may feel the beauty, purpose, and serenity of the covenant belonging the Lord offers. In sacred moments, He may let us glimpse the larger eternal reality of which our daily lives are part, where small and simple things work together for the good of givers and receivers.

Rebekah, the daughter of my first mission president, shared how the Lord answered her prayer for comfort with an unexpected opportunity to answer someone else’s prayer.

Late one evening, Rebekah, grieving her mother’s recent passing, had a clear impression to go buy gas for her car. When she arrived at the station, she met an elderly woman struggling to breathe with a large oxygen tank. Later, Rebekah was able to give the woman her mother’s portable oxygen machine. This sister gratefully said, “You’ve given me back my freedom.” Things work together for good when we minister as Jesus Christ would.

A father assigned with his teacher-age son as ministering companions explained, “Ministering is when we go from being neighbors who bring cookies to trusted friends, spiritual first responders.” Covenant belonging in Jesus Christ comforts, connects, consecrates.

Even in tragedy, spiritual preparation may remind us Heavenly Father knew when we felt most vulnerable and alone. For example, a family whose child was taken to the hospital later found comfort in remembering the Holy Ghost had whispered in advance what to expect.

Sometimes the larger eternal reality the Lord lets us feel includes family across the veil. A sister found joy in conversion to Jesus Christ’s restored gospel. Yet two traumas had deeply impacted her life—seeing a boating accident and tragically losing her mother, who had taken her own life.

Yet this sister overcame her fear of water enough to be baptized by immersion. And on what became a very happy day, she witnessed someone, acting as proxy for her deceased mother, be baptized in the temple. “Temple baptism healed my mother, and it freed me,” the sister said. “It was the first time I felt peace since my mother died.”

Our sacred music echoes His assurance that all things can work together for our good.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;

But with joy wend your way.

Though hard to you this journey may appear,

Grace shall be as your day. …

And should we die before our journey’s through,

Happy day! All is well!

The Book of Mormon is evidence we can hold in our hand that Jesus is the Christ and God fulfills His prophecies. Written by inspired prophets who saw our day, the Book of Mormon begins with raw drama—a family dealing with deep differences. Yet, as we study and ponder 1 Nephi 1 through to Moroni 10, we are drawn to Jesus Christ with a firm testimony that what happened there and then can bless us here and now.

As the Lord, through His living prophet, brings more houses of the Lord closer in more places, temple blessings work together for our good. We come by covenant and ordinance to God our Father and Jesus Christ and gain eternal perspective on mortality. One by one, name by name, we offer beloved family members—ancestors—sacred ordinances and covenant blessings in the Lord’s pattern of saviors on Mount Zion.

As temples come closer to us in many places, a temple sacrifice we can offer is to seek holiness in the house of the Lord more frequently. For many years, we have saved, planned, and sacrificed to come to the temple. Now, as circumstances permit, please come even more often to the Lord in His holy house. Let regular temple worship and service bless, protect, and inspire you and your family—the family you have or the family you will have and become someday.

Also, where your circumstances permit, please consider the blessing of owning your own temple clothes. A grandmother from a humble family said of anything in the world, what she most wanted were her own temple clothes. Her grandson said, “Grandma whispered, ‘I will serve in my own temple clothes, and after I die, I will be buried in them.’” And when the time came, she was.

As President Russell M. Nelson teaches, “Everything we believe and every promise God has made to His covenant people come together in the temple.”

In time and eternity, the purpose of Creation and the nature of God Himself are to bring all things together for our good.

This is the Lord’s eternal purpose. It is His eternal perspective. It is His eternal promise.

When life is cluttered and purpose isn’t clear, when you want to live better but don’t know how, please come to God our Father and Jesus Christ. Trust They live, love you, and want all things for your good. I testify They do, infinitely and eternally, in the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.

See John 16:33.

Romans 8:28.

Doctrine and Covenants 90:24. The popular phrase “It’s all good” often implies things are OK and in order, without necessarily meaning they are actually for our good.

See Moses 1:3.

See Alma 7:11.

See 2 Nephi 9:10–12. God respects moral agency, sometimes allowing even the unrighteous acts of others to affect us. But as we willingly seek to do all we can, Jesus Christ’s grace and His enabling and atoning power can cleanse, heal, bind up, reconcile us with ourselves and each other, on both sides of the veil.

See Moroni 7:6, 10–12. Professor Terry Warner writes perceptively on this topic.

See Romans 3:10; Moroni 10:25.

See Moroni 10:32.

See Doctrine and Covenants 122:4, 7.

We learn by experiences we would never choose. Sometimes bearing burdens with the Lord’s help can increase our capacity to bear those burdens; Mosiah 24:10–15 illustrates the Lord’s promise to “visit my people in their afflictions” and to “strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens.” Alma 33:23 teaches that our “burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son.” Mosiah 18:8 reminds us that when we are “willing to bear one another’s burdens … they may be light.”

The prophet Isaiah speaks of the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, … to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:1–3). Likewise, the psalmist offers the Lord’s promised perspective: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). This includes the glorious promises for the righteous on the morning of the First Resurrection.

Doctrine and Covenants 122:4. Believing trials may be for what is in eternity a “small moment” does not mean to downplay or make less trying or challenging the agonizing pain or suffering we may experience day after day in this life, the unbearable sleepless nights, or the excruciating uncertainties of each new day. Perhaps the promise of being able to look back and see our mortal suffering in light of God’s compassion and eternal view adds some perspective to our understanding of mortality and our hope to endure with faith and trust in Him to the end. Also, when we have eyes to see, there is often good in the now; we need not necessarily wait for a future time to see good.

See 2 Nephi 2:2.

See Matthew 7:9–10. Letting God prevail in our lives is not passively to accept whatever comes. It is actively to believe that Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, want only and always what is best for us. When tragedy strikes, we can ask with faith, not “Why me?” but “What can I learn?” And we can mourn with broken hearts and contrite spirits, knowing, in His time and way, compensating blessings and opportunities will come.

We have covenanted to mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort (see Mosiah 18:9).

Job 1:21.

See Doctrine and Covenants 115:6.

Faith in the face of difficulty is the opposite of the existential anguish and despair the Book of Mormon describes of those who “curse God, and wish to die” but who “nevertheless … would struggle with the sword for their lives” (Mormon 2:14).

“Be Still, My Soul,” Hymns, no. 124.

“Come, Come, Ye Saints,” Hymns, no. 30. Consider also:

How great the wisdom and the love. …

Redemption’s grand design,

Where justice, love, and mercy meet

In harmony divine!

(“How Great the Wisdom and the Love,” Hymns, no. 195.)

Amid life’s uncertainties, we know redemption’s grand design will bring justice, love, and mercy together for our good.

See Obadiah 1:21. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “How are they [the Latter-day Saints] to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 473).

Members attending the temple for the first time can purchase temple clothes at a significant discount.

Russell M. Nelson, “The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 94.