If there was ever a person who had reason to despair, it was Moroni. His people had been annihilated by their enemies, the Lamanites. Those who had escaped the final battle at Cumorah were “hunted down…until they were all destroyed” (Mormon 8:2). Moroni was alone and vulnerable. “Whether they will slay me, I know not,” he wrote (Mormon 8:3).
Yet he wrote with conviction about the impact his words would have on readers thousands of years in the future. “I speak unto you as if ye were present,” he wrote, “and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35).
Some form of the word “hope” appears 59 times in the Book of Mormon. Nearly half of those—27—are in Ether and Moroni, the books Moroni appended to his father’s record. What does he teach us about hope?
- Hope comes from faith. (See Ether 12:4, 9, Moroni 7:40, 42.)
- Hope provides an anchor for our souls. (See Ether 12:4; see also Hebrews 6:19.)
- We must have hope in order to enter God’s kingdom and receive eternal life. (See Ether 12:32, Moroni 7:3, Moroni 10:21.)
- The Holy Ghost fills us with hope. (See Moroni 8:26.) In contrast, sin leads to despair. (See Moroni 10:22.)
What did Moroni hope for? He quoted a sermon in which his father asked and answered that question:
What is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
Moroni 7:41
He also quoted a letter in which his father urged him to keep this hope front and center:
My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.
Moroni 9:25
Elder Neil L. Andersen recently assured us:
Hope is a living gift, a gift that grows as we increase our faith in Jesus Christ. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” We build this substance—the evidence blocks of our faith—through prayer, temple covenants, keeping the commandments, continually feasting on the scriptures and the words of modern-day prophets, taking the sacrament, serving others, and worshipping weekly with our fellow Saints.
“The Triumph of Hope,” General Conference, October 2024
Today, I will strive to build my hope by exercising faith in Jesus Christ. I will remember that the hope He provides through His Spirit can anchor my soul, help me endure the challenges of life, and prepare me to be with Him again.