Continuing from ′Knowing as We Do′:
Really trusting in the living Lord includes trusting his timing. . . . The woman of Canaan sensed that Jesus was a special being. Nevertheless, she was told by the Savior himself that he was ″not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24.) This must indeed have been a difficult declaration to receive even with the miracle that ensued. After all, it was years later that the church, with Paul designated as the Apostle to the Gentiles, took the gospel to the gentiles. And it was to be centuries, indeed not until our time, before Jesus′ instructions to preach the gospel to all nations would begin to be carried out.
What of those individuals or peoples who are caught in these time troughs, whether the troughs be short or of long duration? Not surprisingly, the merciful Lord who designed those troughs, has said in modern revelation that ″all who would have received [the gospel] with all their hearts″ will be given the chance so to do in the spirit world. (Joseph Smith—Vision 1:8.) If they do accept they will have all that blessings that would have been theirs had they accepted the fullness of the gospel in their second estate.
Thus we are often confronted with situations in which certain things will be—someday, but not now. . .
~Neal A. Maxwell; ′Things As They Really Are′ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978) 39
