Your Search for Truth
To guide and bless you, Heavenly Father has lovingly revealed truths of things as they are, were, and are to come.
More knowledge is available today than ever before. In the past, if you wanted to know something, you had to go to the library and look it up. Now, the internet and handheld devices provide access to almost endless information that you can find almost immediately.
The Lord is pleased when you make wise use of these resources, but in your search for truth remember to look to God, who knows all things (see Doctrine and Covenants 88:41). From Him, you can find eternal truth, which is knowledge of “things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:24).
Among the truths God has given you, one of the most important is that He is your Heavenly Father. He knows and loves you perfectly. Understanding and embracing this eternal truth gave you direction and blessings in your pre-earth life and will continue to do so now and forever.
You Were with Heavenly Father in the Beginning
Truth of things “as they were” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:24) tells us that we were with our Heavenly Father before the world began (see Doctrine and Covenants 93:21, 23).
Before our life on earth, Heavenly Father presented His great plan of happiness. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that God’s plan is to grant us “a privilege to advance like himself [and] … be exalted with himself.” His work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
We exercised our agency and chose to follow Heavenly Father’s plan. We have been blessed to be born into this life where we continue to have agency and can experience mortality, learn, and progress toward eternal life.
During your mortal journey, you will experience challenges and setbacks. But you do not need to face life’s adversity alone. Your Heavenly Father will bless you, lift you, and comfort you (see 2 Corinthians 1:3). As an essential part of His plan, Heavenly Father has provided the way for you to return to Him.
You’ve Been Shown the Way to Your Father
The truth of “things as they really are” (Jacob 4:13) is clear: we cannot reach our full potential as children of our Heavenly Father alone. For this reason, and because of His love for us, God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to show us the way to find happiness, meaning, and joy in this life and in eternity (see John 3:16; Doctrine and Covenants 93:11).
The Savior’s earthly experience is important. He grew until He “received a fulness of the glory of the Father” and “all power, both in heaven and on earth” (see Doctrine and Covenants 93:16–17). The Savior has taught that we “may come unto the Father in [His] name, and in due time receive of his fulness.”
He said: “For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:19–20).
In the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world and suffered all sorrows and “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind” (Alma 7:11). This “caused [Him], … the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). Only through Jesus Christ and His Atonement and Resurrection are salvation and exaltation possible.
Through the Savior’s grace and atoning sacrifice, you may grow until you one day receive a fulness and are perfected. As you follow the Savior’s example and obey His commandments, He will lead and guide you to the glorious presence of our Father in Heaven.
Will You Receive His Gift?
Among the truths of “things as they really will be” (Jacob 4:13), we learn that our experience in eternity is determined by our choice to follow Jesus Christ and receive the gifts He offers.
The scriptures teach that we will “enjoy that which [we] are willing to receive” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:32; emphasis added). My mission president, Elder Marion D. Hanks (1921–2011), taught his missionaries that asking what we are willing to receive and enjoy is a way to judge where we are in our spiritual journey. “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:33).
As we receive the Savior’s gifts by earnestly seeking and following Him, we will rejoice in the hope of eternal life and “in him who is the giver of [that] gift” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:33). This gift given so lovingly “is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).
God is your Heavenly Father. He knows and loves you. As you turn to Him in your search for truth, you can receive intelligence, wisdom, truth, virtue, and light (see Doctrine and Covenants 88:40) until “the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God, being quickened in him and by him” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:49).
This will be a most glorious and joyful day.