Compensating Blessings
While many circumstances in life may be beyond our control, none of us is beyond the reach of the Lord’s infinite blessings.
Serving in the Presiding Bishopric, I have had the privilege of meeting Latter-day Saints around the world in a variety of places and cultures. I have been continually inspired by your abiding faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet I have also been moved by the diverse and often difficult circumstances many of you face—challenges such as illness, disability, limited resources, fewer opportunities for marriage or education, abuse by others, and other limitations or constraints. At times, these trials may seem to hinder your progress and challenge your genuine efforts to live the gospel fully, making it more difficult to serve, worship, and fulfill sacred duties.
My dear friends, if you ever feel limited or disadvantaged by the circumstances of your life, I want you to know this: The Lord loves you personally. He knows your circumstances, and the door to His blessings remains wide open to you no matter the challenges you face.
I have learned this truth through a personal experience that, though seemingly insignificant, left a lasting impression on me. At the age of 22, while serving in the French Air Force in Paris, I was thrilled to learn that Elder Neal A. Maxwell, an Apostle of the Lord, would be speaking at a conference on the Champs-Élysées. However, just before the event, I received orders to drive a senior officer to the airport at the exact time the conference was set to take place.
I was disappointed. But determined to attend, I dropped the officer off and rushed to the conference. After finding a parking spot, I sprinted down the Champs-Élysées to the meeting place and arrived breathless with only five minutes left before the meeting ended. Just as I entered, I heard Elder Maxwell say, “I will now give you an apostolic blessing.” In that instant, I had a beautiful, unforgettable spiritual experience. I was overcome by the Spirit, and the words of the blessing seemed to penetrate every fiber of my soul as though they were meant just for me.
What I experienced that day was a small yet powerful manifestation of a comforting aspect of God’s plan for His children: When circumstances beyond our control prevent us from fulfilling the righteous desires of our hearts, the Lord will compensate in ways that allow us to receive His promised blessings.
This reassuring truth is grounded in three key principles found in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ:
-
God loves each of us perfectly. “He inviteth [us] all to come unto him and partake of his goodness.” His plan of redemption ensures that everyone, without exception, will be granted a just opportunity to one day receive the blessings of salvation and exaltation.
-
Because God is both just and merciful and His plan is perfect, He will not hold us accountable for things beyond our control. Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained that “God … takes into merciful account not only our desires and our performance, but also the degrees of difficulty which our varied circumstances impose upon us.”
-
Through Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we can find the strength to endure and ultimately overcome all of life’s challenges. As Alma taught, the Savior took upon Himself not only the sins of the repentant but also “the pains and the sicknesses of his people” and “their infirmities.” Thus, beyond redeeming us from our mistakes, the Lord’s mercy and grace sustain us through injustices, deficiencies, and limitations imposed by our mortal experience.
Receiving these compensating blessings comes with certain conditions. The Lord asks us to do “all we can” and to “offer [our] whole souls as an offering unto him.” This requires a deep desire, a sincere and faithful heart, and our utmost diligence in keeping His commandments and aligning our will with His.
When our earnest efforts fall short of our aspirations due to circumstances beyond our control, the Lord still accepts the desires of our hearts as a worthy offering. President Dallin H. Oaks taught, “We will be blessed for the righteous desires of our hearts even though some outside circumstance has made it impossible for us to carry those desires into action.”
As the Prophet Joseph Smith worried about his brother Alvin, who had died without receiving essential gospel ordinances, he received this comforting revelation: “All that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of [the gospel], who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of [the celestial kingdom of God].” The Lord then added, “For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.”
What matters to the Lord is not merely whether we are able but whether we are willing to do all we can to follow Him as our Savior.
A friend once comforted a young missionary grieving over his early release due to health reasons, despite his sincere prayers and earnest desire to serve. This friend shared a scripture in which the Lord declared that when His children “go with all their might” and “cease not their diligence” to fulfill His commandments, “and their enemies [which may include adverse circumstances in our lives] hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those [people], but to accept of their offerings.”
My friend testified to this young man that God knew he had given his very best in answering the call to serve. He assured him that the Lord had accepted his offering and that the blessings promised to all faithful missionaries would not be withheld.
The Lord’s compensating blessings often come through the kindness and service of others who help us accomplish what we cannot do on our own. I remember a time when, living far from one of our daughters in France, we felt helpless to assist her after a difficult delivery. That same week our ward in Utah sought help for a mother who had just given birth to twins. My wife, Valérie, volunteered to bring a meal for her, with a prayer in her heart for both this new mother and our daughter in need. Soon after, we learned that the sisters in our daughter’s ward in France had organized to provide meals for her family. To us, God had answered our prayers, sending His angels to bring comfort when we couldn’t.
When facing limitations and challenges, may we recognize our own blessings—our gifts, resources, and time—and use them to serve those in need. In doing so, we will not only bless others but invite healing and compensation into our own lives.
One of the most powerful ways we may contribute to God’s compensating blessings is through the vicarious work we do for our ancestors in the house of the Lord. As we perform ordinances on their behalf, we actively participate in the Lord’s great work of salvation, using our gifts and abilities to provide blessings to those who did not have the opportunity to receive them during their mortal lives.
The loving service we offer in holy temples reminds us that the Savior’s grace extends beyond this life. In the life to come, we may be given new opportunities to accomplish what we could not do in this mortal life. Speaking to sisters who had not yet found an eternal companion, President Lorenzo Snow lovingly said: “There is no Latter-day Saint who dies after having lived a faithful life who will lose anything because of having failed to do certain things when opportunities were not furnished him or her. … They will have all the blessings, exaltation and glory that any man or woman will have who had this opportunity.”
This message of hope and comfort is for all of us, children of God. None of us can escape the challenges and limitations of mortality. After all, we are all born with an inherent incapacity to save ourselves. Yet we have a loving Savior, and “we know that it is by [His] grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
I testify that while many circumstances in life may be beyond our control, none of us is beyond the reach of the Lord’s infinite blessings. Through His atoning sacrifice, the Savior will compensate for every inability and injustice if we offer our whole souls to Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.