Elder Neal A. Maxwell said in his book ‘Even As I AM’: “Too often we behave as if we are in massive competition with others for God’s love. But we have His Love, unconditionally and universally; it is our love of Him that remains to be proven, such as through service to others. Magnanimity, after all, arises from meekness.
We are often overly concerned, for instance, with our acquiring or holding turf when, in fact, we are urged instead to let go of the things of the world. Any possessiveness for the things of this world is wasted effort, for it is obviously on a collision course with reality. One’s claims to turf will have no legal status in the kingdom of heaven anyway. It is, for example, our degree of attained meekness or patience—not our title to property or position—that will “rise with us in the resurrection” and will live on. In seeking to demonstrate our friendship for the Savior, we cannot invoke, much as we might like to, the excuse that life was once much simpler, such as in the period of Jesus’ mortal ministry. If anything, there are more than enough parallels between His time and ours to make it clear that circumstances are roughly and sufficiently comparable; so will be the tutorials. Therefore, in appealing to divine justice, we should be very careful indeed in the midst of common temptations about invoking circumstantial pleadings.
Nor does Jesus’ influence on the tutored depend upon His personal proximity. The Comforter will teach us and strengthen us. After the ascension of the resurrected Jesus, the fullness of the apostolic ministry began to settle upon Peter, who, far from shrinking from open acknowledgment of his acquaintanceship with the Savior, became (subsequent to the bestowal of the Holy Ghost and ascension of Jesus) emboldened and courageous..
