Sometimes God feels distant and unknowable, but he doesn’t have to be! Restored scripture and prayer can show us what he’s like.
Humanity has wondered about the nature of God for thousands of years. The stories in the scriptures sometimes endear him to us, but other times seem to paint him as a being who is strict, distant, and unknowable. Praying to him becomes somewhat awkward when we don’t know how he’ll respond. What is his relationship to us? Can we communicate with him? What is he like?
In his message “The Grandeur of God,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland seeks to address those who wrestle with these questions. He explains that God loves us devotedly, as illustrated by God’s tears while he showed Enoch a vision of all the earth (Moses 7:29–33, 37). When Enoch sees God crying, he’s amazed—what reason could an all-powerful being have to cry? God explains that it sorrows him to see his children suffer, whether their struggles come from their own mistakes or those of others.
For many people, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a God who loves humanity so much that he cries for us and with us, and yet that is exactly who he is! As the literal father of our spirits, God desires to strengthen us, comfort us in our sorrows, correct us when we make mistakes, and encourage us to follow his commandments so that we may reach our divine potential.
Elder Holland emphasizes that our Heavenly Father is “a personal, living God, who knows our names, hears and answers prayers, and cherishes us eternally as children of His spirit.” We shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to such a being, especially because he longs to love and guide us. As we pray to our Heavenly Father, he will pour out his love for us, and if we’re willing, he’ll direct us on the path he has planned for our salvation.
Learn more about the character of God in Jeffery R. Holland’s general conference talk, “The Grandeur of God.”
Source: General Conference
—Hadley Parker, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY MARC-OLIVIER JODOIN
Find more insights
Read about how God supports us through our trials in Elder Gerrit W. Gong’s general conference talk “All Things for Our Good.”
Read Elder Taniela B Wakolo’s general conference talk “God Loves His Children” to discover the ways Heavenly Father shows his love for us.
Dive deeper into President Holland’s talk, “The Grandeur of God,” by reading Maya Burnett’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “The God We See in Jesus.”