LDS Quotes on the Nature of God
No one on this earth loves you as He does. No one here understands you better or really knows your sorrows and weaknesses. No one on earth has the power that Jesus Christ has. No one here is more eager for you to become everything you can become. No one pleads with the Father on your behalf as He does.
He [Heavenly Father] is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience: When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence. When He answers no, it is to prevent error. When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth.
| “Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer,” Ensign, November 1989, p. 30
“The purposes of our God are great, His love unfathomable, His wisdom infinite, and His power unlimited; therefore, the Saints have cause to rejoice and be glad.”
“The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. . . . How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart!”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 137.
“Our Eternal Father lives. He stands as the great God of the universe, ruling in majesty and power. And yet He is my Father, to whom I may go in prayer with the assurance that He will hear, listen, and answer.”
“If a man learns nothing more than to eat drink, and sleep, and does not comprehend any of the designs of god, the beast comprehends the same things. It eats, sleeps, and knows nothing more about God; yet it knows as much as we, unless we are able to comprehend by the inspiration of almighty God. If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.”
“We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’.”
Our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance. I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is in the details of our lives.
| “Consider the Blessings,” Ensign, November 2012
| Cherished Experiences from the Writings of President David O. McKay p. 24
“Nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal – it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules; small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity.”
| The Jesus I Never Knew
Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.
| The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey
“Alas, in our age, some arrogantly believe that if they cannot comprehend something, then God cannot comprehend it either.”
“The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.”
“In the Christian story, God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and seabed of the Nature.”
| Miracles
“Many people no longer believe in the ministry of angels. But God does! He has used this means of communication from the days of Adam. Is there any reason why He should not continue the procedure in our day?”
| “The Angel Moroni Came!” General Conference, Oct, 1983
“God, the eternal Father, is constantly mindful of you. He is mindful of his people throughout all this land, and he will reward you according to your faithfulness in observing the laws of righteousness and of truth.”
“Why is there any misery at all in the world? Not by chance, surely. From some cause then. Is it from the intention of the Deity? But he is perfectly benevolent. Is it then contrary to his intention? But he is almighty. Nothing can shake the solidity of this reasoning, so short, so clear and so decisive.”
| Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. Nelson Pike (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970), 66.
“No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. … He will [always] stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them.”
In many instances of a similar nature where the destruction of the people of God seemed imminent, and there appeared no way of escape, suddenly there arose something or another that had been prepared for their salvation to avert the impending destruction. We find this in the case of the Israelites when led by Moses. When they came to the Red Sea and the Egyptian army in their rear threatened their destruction, there seemed no way of escape, but at the very moment when deliverance was required, behold, it appeared and they were delivered. So it has been and so it ever will be with us. Notwithstanding our difficulties may appear very great, yet there will be means provided for our escape if we ourselves perform the duties incumbent upon us as the children of God. But it may become necessary in the future – and this is the point I wish to make – for some of the Saints to act the part of Esther, the queen, and be willing to sacrifice anything and everything that is required at their hands for the purpose of working out the deliverance of the Latter-day Saints. . . .But it is our business to step forward as did Esther, and be willing to risk all for the salvation of the people. In undertaking her task, Esther said, “If I perish, I perish.” Here is a lesson for our sisters. But the people of God will not perish. There will always be a ram caught in the thicket for their deliverance.
| Journal of Discourses 23:290, p. 293
“We should not assume, however, that just because something is unexplainable by us, it is unexplainable.”
One who really prays that this kingdom will come…[will make the effort to] keep himself in harmony with the order of the kingdom, to subject the flesh to the spirit, selfishness to altruism, and to learn to love the things that God loves. To make the will of God supreme on earth as it is in heaven is to be allied with God in the affairs of life.
“Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.”
“I feel most assuredly that our Father in heaven is far more interested in a soul—one of his children—than it is possible for an earthly father to be in one of his children. His love for us is greater than can be the love of an earthly parent for his offspring.”
“To fully understand this gift of agency and its inestimable worth, it is imperative that we understand that God’s chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess. He wants to help us and pleads for the chance to assist us, but he will not do so in violation of our agency. He loves us too much to do that, and doing so would run counter to his divine character. . . .To countermand and ultimately forbid our choices was Satan’s way, not God’s, and the Father of us all simply never will do that. He will, however, stand by us forever to help us see the right path, find the right choice, respond to the true voice, and feel the influence of his undeniable Spirit. His gentle, peaceful, powerful persuasion to do right and find joy will be with us ‘so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved’ (Moroni 7:36).”
| “The Golden Thread of Choice,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, p. 18
“God is pervasively and lovingly in the details of things, yet does not constrict our moral agency in any way. Rather, in his perfect love and awareness, he pays perfect and strict attention to details. And his influence is felt in many ways that are quite remarkable even in what seem to be the smallest of life’s episodes. Why should we be surprised? Has he not told us that a hair shall not fall from the head unnoticed or a sparrow fall from the air? His divine attention is clearly far beyond our comprehension. But it is nevertheless a reality of which he has reassured us.”
“God’s progression is in building world’s and bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man…Not his intelligence or knowledge, or virtue, or wisdom, or love, for these things are, as the scriptures teach, in a state of perfection.”
In a nutshell, the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22 tells the story of a God reckless with desire to get his family back.
| The Jesus I Never Knew By Philip Yancey