Choose Jesus Christ Again and Again

Jesus Christ’s commitment to be our Savior and fulfill the Father’s plan was motivated by His perfect love for us and His desire to honor His Father (see 2 Nephi 26:24; John 8:28–29). In that plan, there is growth through the power of our Savior and the correct use of our agency. Although the plan does not spare us extreme pain, injustice, or difficulty in mortality, it is a plan for our ultimate happiness (see Alma 42:8). It is full of light, generosity, strengthening, and love.

Lucifer, on the other hand, was selfish. He was not willing to suffer or sacrifice for anyone. He was motivated by a desire to have God’s honor, power, and glory for himself. His position was centered on his personal promotion and superiority. He was, and remains, rooted in (and tormented by) comparison.

Lucifer’s claim that “one soul shall not be lost” may have seemed enticing to some, but we know that he was “a liar from the beginning” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:25). He wanted “to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3), which is so valuable to our growth. Lucifer’s pursuit of power and status caused him to rebel against Heavenly Father and reject His plan (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:36). President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) taught that “it was pride that felled Lucifer” and that the enmity, or hatred, that often accompanies pride “is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.”

Lucifer’s rebellion resulted in a war in heaven, where he was “cast down,” and he “became Satan, … even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will” (Moses 4:3–4). In this exercise of his own agency, he became the first prisoner of his rebellion—confined to lead and operate only within the realms of negativity and darkness.

As depressing and miserable as all of that sounds, Satan’s ability to blind and deceive is not to be underestimated—a third of the hosts of heaven followed him (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:36). They were also cast down and denied, along with him, the privilege of receiving a mortal body. He continues to pursue his vicious self-interest using his familiar tools of darkness, jealousy, discouragement, anger, hatred, and cruelty.

We exercised our agency and followed Jesus Christ. We were blessed to come to this mortal life, where we continue to have freedom of choice and a beautiful world in which to live.

The war that began in heaven continues today. Satan and his followers continually seek to oppose us and, ironically, in doing so provide us with opportunities to resist, become strengthened, experience joy, and become blessed by the Father’s plan (see 2 Nephi 2:11). President Dallin H. Oaks has taught that “it is opposition that enables choice and it is the opportunity of making the right choices that leads to the growth that is the purpose of the Father’s plan.” It is not merely doing the right things but choosing the right things that brings us growth.

Get Thee Hence, Satan, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, may be copied for Church use only

Avoid Bitterness

Identifying Satan’s tactics and strategies can help us avoid his traps and choose Jesus Christ again and again throughout our lives, pressing forward toward the blessings He and Heavenly Father have in store for us.

Satan continues his twisted mission of misery, but he is not a creator, just a destroyer, trying to undermine in his grasping, self-focused small-mindedness. He works as a spoiler or a waster (for example, of time and potential). He has no reward to offer those who follow him, so he works with counterfeits and empty promises, operating with fear and doubt.

Years ago, I once tried to persuade my friends at school that they shouldn’t do their homework because I hadn’t done mine. I was in the wrong, but I thought that if we all got in trouble and learned less, I would somehow feel better about myself. My poor behavior at that time reminds me of Satan’s attitude toward us as he picks fault and tries to diminish us.

Unlike every other war in history where the outcome is not known until the end, we know that Jesus Christ will be victorious. He has already redeemed all mankind. Through Him, we will be resurrected and receive a degree of glory. Satan knows this, and in his spite, he is jealous of our potential for eternal happiness and exaltation.

President Jeffrey R. Holland (1940–2025), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has said that Satan knows “he can’t improve, he can’t progress, that … he will never have a bright tomorrow.” He is miserable, and he “seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27). He is so distorted by his bitterness that he—even knowing he will ultimately fail—desperately attempts to “spread the works of darkness” (Helaman 6:28) to harm as many souls as he can. We are involved in hand-to-hand combat with an adversary who is all about cheap shots and knockoffs. We fight for ourselves and for each soul he wants to spoil.

Satan acts out of poisonous motives, but that’s not the path we chose. We can use our agency to continue to follow Jesus Christ and His motives. He has always been centered in His love for the Father and for us. Because of Him and His Atonement, we can repent and continue to do and be a little better each day. Jesus Christ gave His life so we can leave bitterness and the enticements of Satan’s self-limiting rebellion behind and progress to become what the Savior wants and knows we can become.

I sometimes wonder why a third of God’s spirit children would choose to reject His plan. I wonder how much that decision was about fear. Satan’s pitch that he would save all souls and get everyone through might have sounded very safe to us—no risk and no pain. He could entice us to give in to fear by suggesting that we couldn’t really trust Jesus Christ to fulfill God’s plan and emphasizing how hard following God’s plan would be.

It isn’t hard to imagine him trying to exploit fear then, because he does so now. Satan has a limited bag of tricks that he deploys again and again. One of his favorites is to exploit feelings of fear within us because he knows that fear—and its dispiriting companion, doubt—are effective ways to diminish faith. Satan uses these as effective tools.

When we face trials and difficulty in this life, we can have confidence in God’s plan and remember that He is able to “consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain” (2 Nephi 2:2). We can have confidence in Jesus Christ and that through Him our challenges can ultimately lead to our learning and growth. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love” (2 Timothy 1:7) and of confidence. Our Savior suffered all our pain and sorrows (see Alma 7:11). He paid the price for sin and laid down His life for us and took it up again (see John 10:17), thereby gaining victory over sin and death. He has endured all things so He can be our strength when we confront fear, and through Him we can eventually overcome it. He has qualified Himself to plead in our behalf (see Doctrine and Covenants 45:3–5) and to claim all those who have faith in Him (see Moroni 7:28).

While Satan is selfish, vindictive, and bitter, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are all about ennobling and empowering us so that we can receive more from Them. Who else says we can have everything they have with no holding back? That’s remarkable! Everything the Father has can be ours! This is possible only through Jesus Christ. He said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Heaven’s windows are thrown open to pour out blessings (see Malachi 3:10) into our overflowing cups (see Psalm 23:5). When God gives, He gives in “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over”! (Luke 6:38). There is no scarcity, exclusivity, or self-promotion in that!

When we truly think about the Savior and His selflessness and redemptive power, something inside us drives us toward Him. We feel compelled, not in a harsh way, to follow Him. We see His abundance as He gives glory to the Father and so freely and generously wants us—and invites us—to receive everything He and His Father have (see Romans 8:16–17, 32; Doctrine and Covenants 84:38).

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is the center of Heavenly Father’s plan. Only through Him can we achieve our divine destiny. Along the way, He helps us recognize, resist, and overcome the tactics, strategies, and traps of the adversary. Because of Him—the perfect champion of the perfect plan—we can follow that plan of happiness and accomplish all we came here to do.