Some 700 years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Isaiah penned prophetic words that would find their fulfillment largely in the mortal ministry of the Anointed One:

Photo by Jeffrey Allred

Jesus Christ, as depicted in familiar statue "The Christus," can deliver His followers from pain, fear and despair.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, . . . to comfort all that mourn." Now note the poignant passage that follows: "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61: 1-3, compare Luke 4: 18-19).

Jesus Christ came to bring beauty for ashes — to replace distress with comfort, worry with peace, turmoil with rest. The Good Shepherd came to earth on a search and rescue mission — to identify and gather in those who have strayed, to welcome the wanderer back home and adorn the tattered son or daughter of God with a robe, a ring, and a fatted calf.

Our Precious Savior condescended — left His throne divine — to come down and be with His people, the sheep of His fold. Jesus Christ came to right all the terrible wrongs of this life, to fix the unfixable, to repair the irreparable. He came to heal us by His tender touch, to still the storms of our startled hearts. In short, he came to replace ashes with beauty.

Things do not always turn out as we had expected. "Every one of us," Elder Jeffrey R. Holland pointed out in the October 1999 general conference, "has times when we need to know things will get better. The Book of Mormon speaks of this as 'hope for a better world' (Ether 12:4). For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to do something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. . . .

"My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need. There is help. There is happiness. There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World. . . . I say: Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you in His 'more excellent ministry' with a future of 'better promises.' "

Each one of us needs to know — needs the conviction, deep down in our souls — that our Master is not an absentee Landlord, not a distant Deity. He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15), knows from firsthand experience all about our pains, our afflictions, our temptations (Alma 7:11-12), and thereby understands "the weakness of man and how to succor them who are tempted" (Doctrine and Covenants 62:1). We ask: "Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish? Who, who can understand?" The answer distils upon the soul: "He, only One" (Hymns, #129).

The Lord has not, as the deists concluded centuries ago, wound up the world clock and left it to run on its own. Rather, He is intimately involved in saving and succoring — literally, running to help — those who call upon Him and learn to trust in His mighty arm. Indeed, our God's infinity precludes neither His immediacy nor His intimacy. As Enoch the seer learned, when we reach out to the Lord, He is there, His bosom is there; He is just and merciful and kind forever (Moses 7:30).

We need not be free from turmoil or sorrow in order to be at rest in today's world. Like Nephi, we need not know the meaning of all things — including why everything seems to go wrong when we're trying so hard to do what's right — to know that the Savior loves us (1 Nephi 11:17) and that He can strengthen us to bear heavy burdens with relative ease (Mosiah 24:11-15).

As President Howard W. Hunter declared in the 1979 general conference, "whatever Jesus lays His hands upon lives. If Jesus lays His hands upon a marriage, it lives. If He is allowed to lay His hands on the family, it lives."

The Lord is not slack in keeping His promises to His people: He will welcome His followers into His rest (Matthew 11:28-30; Moroni 7:3), not only in the sense of granting them eternal life in the world to come, but also in bestowing upon them the peace which is the harbinger of eternal life (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23), the peace in this life that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

God may not always remove us from the burdensome and toilsome circumstances in which we find ourselves, but He will empower us to deal responsibly with our challenges and even change our circumstances.

In speaking of the horror and tragedy of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, President Gordon B. Hinckley stated: "Our hearts are deeply touched. . . . This has been a tragic, solemn and dark day. We have been reminded that evil is still rampant in the world. Its insidious and dastardly hand has struck again in a most reprehensible manner." Now note that calming reassurance from a prophet of God: "But dark as is this hour, there is shining through the heavy overcast of fear and anger the solemn and wonderful image of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Prince of Peace, the Exemplar of universal love, and it is to Him that we look in these circumstances. It was He who gave His life that all might enjoy eternal life. May the peace of Christ rest upon us and give us comfort and reassurance."

During my darkest hours — during times of extreme stress and distress or days of worry and deep anxiety — some of the greatest comfort and perspective have come through singing or reflecting upon the words of sacred music. For example:

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In Ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,

Sorrow forget, love's purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

I echo the counsel of the prophets of God, ancient and modern, that we need not fear, we need not surrender to despair or doom or gloom. God is in His heavens. He knows us, one and all, and He knows of our pains and our possibilities. Jesus Christ our Deliverer lives, is directing His Church and kingdom through living prophets and apostles, and offers to bear our burdens and liberate our souls from the galling yoke of sin and the fetters of a fading world. Indeed, "Gentle the peace he finds for by beseeching. Constant he is and kind, love without end" (Hymns #129).

Robert L. Millet is the Richard L. Evans Professor of Relgious Understanding at BYU.