“Find Joy in Your Gospel Journey,” Liahona, July 2025.
Find Joy in Your Gospel Journey
The ultimate outcome of showing our love for the Lord by keeping His commandments is blessings that bring happiness and joy.
Photograph of joyful Church members in Thailand by Christina Smith
While serving as a mission leader in Japan some years ago, I attended a weekend conference in a rural city in one of the far corners of our mission. The district president had arranged for me to conduct an interview with a man who had joined the Church a year earlier and was seeking to receive a temple recommend. He hoped to receive his own endowment on or close to the one-year anniversary of his baptism.
During our conversation, this new member described how deeply grateful he was for the bounteous blessings he had received in the year since he was baptized. He enjoyed attending weekly sacrament and other meetings. He became deeply involved in the activities of his branch. To me, he exuded a covenant confidence resulting from understanding his gospel purpose, which was now an integral part of him. He was a converted disciple of Christ who had experienced a mighty change of heart (see Mosiah 5:2).
The rest of our conversation followed a hopeful pattern. We discussed the ordinances and covenants that would be part of his temple experience. He affirmatively answered each of the standard questions associated with receiving a temple recommend.
Following the interview, I recall commenting to the district president how grateful I was to meet such an outstanding man. I told him how impressed I was that the missionaries and members had found, and spiritually nurtured, someone of such caliber and promise.
I was stunned when the district president shared that when this man began receiving lessons from the missionaries and attending church over a year earlier, he was homeless and in exceedingly difficult—near hopeless—circumstances. The district president then described how this brother’s study of the gospel and his conversion over a period of months led to his miraculous change, putting him on a path of both spiritual and temporal self-reliance and giving him a sense of purpose and joy.
The gospel gave him a clear picture of the purpose of his life. Plain and precious gospel truths brought answers to important questions of mortality, beginning with a knowledge that “God is our Heavenly Father, and we are His children. … God knows us personally and loves us.” In His plan, “Heavenly Father has … provided many gifts and guides to help us return to His presence.”
Such was the blessing for this man, which is equally available to all God’s children through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Purpose of Life
Because Jesus Christ restored His gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith, “we have an understanding of the purpose of life, of who we are,” declared President M. Russell Ballard (1928–2023). In his final testimony to the Church, President Ballard, then-Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said:
“We know who God is; we know who the Savior is because we have Joseph, who went into a grove of trees as a boy, seeking forgiveness for his sins. …
“I marvel, and I’m sure that many of you do too, at how blessed we are to know what we know about our purpose in life, why we are here, what we should be trying to do and accomplish in our daily lives.”
For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that knowledge includes an understanding of God’s “perfect plan” of salvation. Also known as “the great plan of happiness,” “the plan of redemption,” and “the plan of mercy” (Alma 42:8, 11, 15), it “takes the mystery out of life and the uncertainty out of our future.” Essential to that plan is “the doctrine of Christ,” which is central to the purpose of life.
Because we have the gospel, we know we are children of God, sent to earth to be tried, polished, and prepared to “be brought forth by the resurrection of the dead, through the triumph and the glory of the Lamb” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:39). We know the commandments and are instructed “sufficiently that [we] know good from evil” (2 Nephi 2:5). We know we are on earth to love and serve. And we know that the Savior has called us to overcome the world and to help others do likewise (see John 16:33; Doctrine and Covenants 64:2) in preparation for His Second Coming.
As we focus on Him, what Joseph Smith called “the cheering sound of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” will strengthen us during difficult days and bring meaning and purpose to our lives and to the lives of others.
Every Knee Shall Bow, by Dan Wilson, may not be copied
Obedience, Blessings, Joy
God has given us moral agency so that we may be accountable for our choices (see Doctrine and Covenants 101:78; 2 Nephi 2:16). As part of “an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11), Satan is allowed to tempt us to misuse our agency.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, “knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth” in our day, called the Prophet Joseph Smith, “spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:17). That pattern whereby the Lord reveals His commandments and will to His prophets continues in our day with President Russell M. Nelson—and for the same reason. God desires to lead us to happiness in this life and to celestial glory in the next life.
Obedience to God’s commandments should come from our devotion to and love for Him. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed that to love God “is the first and great commandment” (see Matthew 22:37–38). He gave further insight when He proclaimed, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
There is a reward for loving the Lord and keeping His commandments. In this dispensation He described “a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven … , upon which all blessings are predicated—
“And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:20–21).
Thus, the ultimate outcome of showing our love for the Lord by keeping His commandments is blessings that bring happiness and joy.
Looking at life through the lens of the restored gospel and modern revelation gives us clarity. With a clear perspective of our divine origin and destiny, we know that “the very things that will make [our] mortal life the best it can be are exactly the same things that will make [our] life throughout all eternity the best it can be!”
Conclusion
I end where I began, recalling my experience years ago with a recent convert in Japan. Through his diligence and the diligence of missionaries and members, he found the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. In finding the gospel, he also discovered his purpose, which expanded his vision. He also found the great plan of happiness. Obedience to the plan’s gospel covenants brought him blessings and joy, lifting him temporally and spiritually.
His journey leading to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ allowed him to become a witness of Jesus Christ. Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has described the joy that follows:
“Because of the loving plan of our Heavenly Father for each of His children, and because of the redeeming life and mission of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we can—and should—be the most joyful people on earth! Even as the storms of life in an often-troubled world pound upon us, we can cultivate a growing and abiding sense of joy and inner peace because of our hope in Christ and our understanding of our own place in the beautiful plan of happiness.”
I offer my gratitude for, and testimony of, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, including the great plan of happiness embedded so deeply in it. I invite you to partake of the fruits of the gospel and to feel more joy in this life on your journey toward eternal life.