The perspective we gain from God’s plan helps us recognize how God’s love for us motivates Church policies.
When an Apostle feels the need to reemphasize something he said just three and a half years before, I can’t help but feel that it must be very important. In President Dallin H. Oaks’s general conference talk “Divine Love in the Father’s Plan” from April 2022, he reiterates much of what he said in his talk “Truth and the Plan” from October 2018.
The earlier talk focuses on our search for truth, and the later talk focuses on how truth reflects God’s love. But both talks emphasize the importance of understanding eternal truths. What’s more, President Oaks lists specific ways that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints applies those eternal truths, and his list is worded almost identically in both talks.
Some of the ways the Church applies those truths include efforts to
- advocate religious freedom across the world;
- send missionaries to as many nations as possible;
- provide relief and humanitarian aid;
- promote the development and happiness of children;
- emphasize family relationships;
- teach the eternal nature and significance of gender; and
- defend God’s doctrine of marriage between a man and a woman.
Some of the things that the Lord requires the Church to do and teach can seem unnecessary or limiting when we don’t understand the eternal truths regarding our Heavenly Father’s plan. Many popular ideologies conflict with the doctrine and policies of the Church. As President Oaks points out, “Satan’s most strenuous opposition is directed at whatever is most important to God’s plan.”
Thankfully, President Oaks promises that those who seek to understand God’s plan and his commandments will come to recognize our Heavenly Father’s love for us. God’s plan exists to help us become as good as we choose to become—with his desire for us being our exaltation in the celestial kingdom of heaven.
Read President Dallin H. Oaks’s explanation of God’s plan and learn how its eternal truths motivate Church policies in his talk “Divine Love and the Father’s Plan.”
Source: General Conference
—Eli Gibbons, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY BARBARA JACKSON
Find more insights
Study President Dallin H. Oaks’s earlier talk “Truth and the Plan” to learn more about how to find eternal truths.
Learn about your role in God’s plan by reading “Not Just a Hand-Me-Down Plan” by Rebecca Purse.