Ample Provision

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth, pertaining to the plan of salvation, before it rolled into existence….  He comprehended the fall of man, and his redemption; He knew the plan of salvation and pointed it out; He was acquainted with the situation of all nations and with their destiny; He ordered all things according to the counsel of His own will; He knows the situation of both the living and the dead, and has made ample provision for their redemption.”  God knew the beginning from the end, and He knows the course of our lives, the challenges we will face, and what is needed for us to be redeemed and return back to the presence of the Father.  We don’t have to worry that for some reason there is no path for us or no way out of our troubles and problems in his life—the Lord has made “ample provision” for all of His children to find their way back to Him if they so choose. 

                This message is one of the themes of the Book of Mormon.  The great journeys of Lehi’s family and the Jaredites both show that the Lord prepared what was needed for these people to make it successfully to the promised land.  The Lord told the Brother of Jared, “The winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.  And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea” (Ether 2 :24-25).  The miracle of the 2000 stripling warriors also showed how the Lord had made a way for the escape of the Ammonites so that they could stay true to their covenant.  Just when they thought they would have to fight the Lamanites in order to defend and help the Nephites, they were inspired with the unlikely solution to send their sons to fight for them.  The Lord had indeed made “a way for [their] escape before [their] enemies” (2 Nephi 4:33).      

                Many of the scriptures in the Book of Mormon testify that God had indeed made the way possible for us to be redeemed.  Alma taught Corianton, “Now, the decrees of God are unalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be saved” (Alma 41:8).  He similarly testified to Helaman, “The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever” (Alma 37:46).  Nephi wrote, “For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him” (1 Nephi 10:18). All of these point to the fact that the plan of God for us requires action on our part—we must “walk” and “look” and “repent” for it to be fulfilled for us.  Lehi preached, “And the way is prepared from the fall of man, and salvation is free” (2 Nephi 2:4).  The way prepared for us will indeed lead to salvation, and it is free because the Savior paid the price, but we still must receive it.  He has “prepared a way that thereby [we] might be partakers of the heavenly gift,” but “ what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift?” (Ether 12:8, D&C 88:33).  The Lord has made ample provision for our spiritual success in this life, and we must find that path He would have us walk so that He can “lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery…  And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven” (Helaman 3:29-30).