Blessed in All Things

King Benjamin asked his people to think about the consequences of obedience vs. disobedience to divine law:

I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

Mosiah 2:41

It’s easy to read these passages as a kind of global binary: first divide the world into two groups of people—the wicked and the righteous—and then observe the outcomes experienced by each group. But of course, the world isn’t that simple. We all fall into both groups at different times. I prefer to think of Benjamin’s invitation on a smaller scale: Think about the times you have acted in harmony with divine law. How did things turn out? Were you happier and more successful than when you acted contrary to it?

President Russell M. Nelson even characterizes this process as a way to ascertain divine law. As a young medical student in the 1940s, he was part of a team working to develop a heart and lung machine. As part of their research, they learned that by altering the potassium/sodium ratio in the blood of a patient, they could “literally…turn the heart off long enough to repair it and then turn it back on again.” He later told a group of medical students that this process “always works, because it is based on divine law” (“The Love and Laws of God,” Brigham Young University Devotional Address, 17 September 2019).

President Nelson pointed to the following two passages from revelations received by Joseph Smith, which influenced him as he participated in this pioneering work:

• “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21).
• “Unto every kingdom is given a law” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:38).

He concluded that “if every kingdom had a law, there must be laws that govern the beating heart. I was determined to discover those laws and obey them,” he said. “By doing so, blessings would come and lives could be saved.”

More recently, President Nelson explained to us that divine laws transcend the boundaries of mortality. “The very things that will make your mortal life the best it can be are exactly the same things that will make your life throughout all eternity the best it can be!” (“Think Celestial,” General Conference, October 2023).

So when King Benjamin assures us that the righteous are “blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual,” he means that God’s laws are not limited to mortality. The same principles which bring us success and happiness in this life will continue to bring us success and happiness in the next.

Obviously, there are exogenous factors which can make it difficult to trace a direct line from action to consequence. It is inaccurate to attribute every misfortune to wrong choices and every advantage to good ones. (See John 9:1-3.) But controlling for those factors as much as possible, it is possible for each of us to follow President Nelson’s strategy: Carefully observe the results of your actions, and make adjustments as needed. When the same action consistently produces a positive outcome, you are likely acting in harmony with divine law.

Today, I will strive to act in accordance with the laws of God, recognizing that those laws will unlock blessings for me and for other people in this life and in eternity.