From Neal A. Maxwell, ’All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience’:
. . . . all is managed in the wisdom of God in ways that we mortals must simply trust because of our faith in the omniscient Lord. It is significant, in this as well as in many other respects, that the vision of those in the celestial kingdom (seen by the Prophet Joseph Smith) was of those who “overcome by faith”—not because while in mortality they had all figured it out, being perpetually able to give a logical, precise explanation for everything. (Doctrine and covenants 76:53)
These faithful also pray—and “being in agony,” pray more earnestly. (Luke 22:44.) Our condition clearly does not affect our petitions. As George MacDonald wisely said, “. . . there are two door keepers to the house of prayer, and Sorrow is more on the alert to open than her grandson Joy.” (Life Essential, p. 49.)
The depth of the concepts in the Book of Mormon are a constant source of inspiration, if we will but contemplate them. There, more abundantly than in any other volume, the Lord opens the windows of heaven, not only to pour out blessings, but to let us look in. He lets us see things, if only fleetingly. In the description of the exquisite suffering of Jesus in His atonement, we are told that Jesus took upon Himself the infirmities of all of us in order “that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh, how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:12. Italics added.) Being sinless Himself, Jesus could not have suffered for personal sin nor known what such agony is—unless He took upon Him our sins, not only to redeem us or save us, but also in order that He might know how “according to the flesh . . . to succor his people according to their infirmities. A stunning insight!”
Thus the compassion of the divine Jesus for us is not the abstract compassion of a sinless individual who would never so suffer; rather, it is the compassion and empathy of one who has suffered exquisitely, though innocent, for all our sins, which were compounded in some way we do not understand. Though He was sinless, yet He suffered more than all of us. We cannot tell Him anything about suffering. This is one of the inner marvels of the atonement of Jesus Christ!
In a tender revelation, the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith about the latter’s sufferings and said, with divine objectivity, that Joseph’s tribulations were (at that time) less than those of Job. Then, in one of those divine interrogatives that is also a declarative, He asked the Prophet, in view of how the Son of God suffered, if the Prophet really wished to have immunity. (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8)
In point of fact, the bread of adversity and the water of affliction are, as it were, our nourishment while in the solitary cell of suffering. (Isaiah 30:20.)
In this third category of suffering and tribulation, believers sometimes suffer ”righteousness’ sake” and ”because of the word.”(Matthew 5:10; 1 Peter 3:14; Matthew 13:21.)
We also sometimes suffer for the ”name of Christ” and ”as a Christian” and, ironically, for ”well doing” and ”for the cross of Christ.” (1 Peter 4:14, 16; 1 Peter 3:17; Galatians 6:12.)
Our very blessings contain within them some of our tribulations. President Joseph F. Smith observed that there never was a people who were guided by revelation, or united of the Lord as His people, who were not persecuted and hated by the wicked and corrupt. (Gospel Doctrine, p. 46.) ~Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1979), 34-36
