The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd Knows What We Need

The Lord will provide for our immediate needs. He knows what we lack, what weighs on us, and when we are hungry, tired, lonely, afraid, unsupported, or without what is necessary to keep going.

Needs are what sustain and strengthen us now. Wants, when they are righteous, are the deeper desires of the heart that the Lord fulfills at the right time and in the right way.

The Savior taught that if a child asks his father for bread, a loving father will not give him a stone, and if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a serpent. His point was that if imperfect earthly parents know how to give good gifts to their children, our Father in Heaven knows even better how to care for His children and give them what is good (Matthew 7:7–11; 3 Nephi 14:7–11).

The Savior taught the same principle when He told us to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. The Father clothes and feeds them, and He knows the needs of His sons and daughters even more perfectly (Matthew 6:25–34; 3 Nephi 13:25–34).

Sometimes our needs are physical: food, clothing, shelter, money, help, strength, or protection. Other times they are emotional or spiritual: comfort, love, reassurance, encouragement, peace, or someone to help carry a burden.

Jesus Christ knows all of these needs. As the Good Shepherd, He knows what we need, when we need it, and what will actually help us rather than simply make the present moment easier (John 10:11, 14).

A good shepherd feeds, protects, watches, and leads his sheep. He knows when they need to rest, when they need water, when they need to move, and where they need to go (Psalm 23:1–4).

The Lord often gives enough for the present need rather than everything at once. He gives enough to help us continue, learn, grow, and know that He has not forgotten us.

Why the Lord Does Not Remove Every Difficulty

The Lord could remove many of our difficulties immediately, but doing so would not always help us.

We are here to learn, grow, choose, work, repent, develop strength, and become more like Him through experience. The Lord helps us, but He does not do everything for us because that would prevent some of the growth mortality is meant to produce.

A chick gains strength by working its way out of the shell. A flower develops in its own time and cannot simply be forced open without damaging it. In the same way, people often need the struggle that comes before growth.

The Lord knows when helping us means removing a burden and when it means strengthening us enough to carry it. He knows when to open the way and when to let us work through difficulty so we can develop the faith, judgment, patience, discipline, and experience we need.

This is not cruelty or neglect. It would not be merciful for the Lord to remove every difficulty if doing so kept us weak, dependent, or unprepared for what comes next.

The Good Shepherd does not promise that every path will be easy. He promises to lead us through it.

The Shepherd Knows Where He Is Leading Us

A sheep does not understand the whole route chosen by the shepherd.

It may be standing in a field with grass and water when the shepherd leads it away. The next stretch may be dry, rocky, difficult, or painful. From the sheep's perspective, it may seem better to go back.

The shepherd knows what the sheep does not. He may know that the old pasture is failing, danger is approaching, or a better place is ahead. The sheep sees the ground immediately in front of it. The shepherd knows the destination.

This is often how the Lord leads us.

There are times when He leads us away from something comfortable and through a season that is harder than what came before. We may not understand why the path became difficult or why the blessing we want seems farther away.

If we choose to follow Him, He will lead us through the path He has prepared and toward the blessings He knows are right for us. Scripture repeatedly shows the Lord leading His people out of bondage, through wilderness and opposition, and toward a promised inheritance.

Lehi's family experienced this directly. The Lord led them through the wilderness by the Liahona, and Nephi wrote that they followed its directions through the more fertile parts of the wilderness (1 Nephi 16:16). That did not mean the journey was easy. Their bows broke, food became scarce, people became discouraged, and the family suffered. Yet when they humbled themselves and followed the Lord's direction, He showed them how to obtain food and continue the journey (1 Nephi 16:18–32).

This is how the Good Shepherd leads. He does not promise that nothing will break or that the wilderness will never become difficult. He provides what is needed to continue when His people listen and obey.

Christ also taught that the shepherd gives his life for the sheep and does not abandon them when danger comes (John 10:11–15). We may face opposition, threats, suffering, or people who try to harm us, but following Christ means we are not abandoned to face those things alone.

Jesus Christ knows how to lead His people, protect them, and bring them where they need to go.

When the Lord Commands, He Provides a Way

One of the most important things I have learned is that when the Lord actually commands something, He provides a way to obey it.

Nephi stated this plainly: the Lord gives no commandment without preparing a way for His children to accomplish what He commands (1 Nephi 3:7).

Years ago, the Lord led me through an experience that taught me this directly.

One morning I felt that I needed to get my life and my work in order. At the time, I was doing very well professionally. I was making good money, had the respect of the people I worked with, and carried major responsibilities across several parts of the company. I had no plan to leave.

I simply felt that the Lord wanted me to put things in order.

So I began documenting my work, diagramming processes, delegating responsibilities, and preparing other people to handle things that depended on me. I promoted people into positions where they could carry responsibilities I had been handling myself. At one point I felt impressed to leave a copy of the documentation with the owner.

The next morning he asked me, “Russell, are you quitting?”

I told him no because I did not believe I was.

The following day I was meeting with the company president about additional promotions and responsibilities. He asked me the same question: “Russell, are you leaving?”

I opened my mouth to say no, but the Spirit told me yes.

I stopped because I had not expected that answer. Then the impression came again, and I told him I was leaving even though I still did not know where I was going or exactly what the Lord was asking me to do.

That was difficult because I was happy where I was. I was successful and financially secure, and leaving did not make sense from what I could see.

I fasted and prayed and planned to go to the temple for confirmation. Before I could go, I badly injured my hand and needed stitches, which prevented me from attending. That night I prayed that the Lord would heal my hand so I could still go.

Instead, He gave me a dream.

In the dream, I told the owner that I was leaving because the Lord was calling me on a mission and that I would be able to take my family with me. The owner asked whether I was sure. I told him that I was. He then told me that if I ever returned, there would always be a place for me because I was like family to them.

I woke with a strong witness from the Spirit. I prayed about the dream, and the Lord confirmed that He wanted me to leave.

So I left my job.

Leading up to this, I had also felt repeatedly directed to use much of our savings and retirement money to help other people. We helped family, friends, and neighbors, paid debts, repaired homes, and gave where I believed the Lord was directing me to give. By the time I left my job, we had no debt, but we also had only a few thousand dollars left.

People criticized those choices. Some said I was being a bad steward. Others later said that leaving my job and trusting the Lord to provide made me slothful.

But that was not what had happened.

I had not simply decided that I did not want to work. I had followed impressions, prepared my workplace to function without me, sought confirmation, and then obeyed what I believed the Lord had commanded.

For me, one important test was simple: if the Lord was truly commanding this, He would make it possible for me to obey without abandoning my responsibility to provide for my family.

And He did.

There were times when money became very low and bills were due. Without knowing our circumstances, people whom we had helped months earlier would unexpectedly repay us, and the amount would cover what was needed.

We ate from our food storage. When something important ran out, help came. When our children needed clothing and we did not have money set aside to replace it, people unexpectedly brought clothes and said they had thought of us before giving them away.

At Christmas, we had almost nothing available for gifts because the money we had needed to cover basic bills. I had twenty dollars to buy a few treats for the family, and I felt told to go home instead. Within a short time people began bringing food, treats, and presents to our door. On Christmas Eve, two different people dressed as Santa brought large amounts of gifts for our family.

They did not know the details of what we were going through.

I saw the same pattern over and over. When we needed work, the Lord provided work. When we needed food, He provided food. When we had given what He directed us to give and later lacked something necessary, He provided what we needed.

That experience taught me that trusting the Lord is not the same as refusing responsibility. If He commands us to do something, our responsibility is to obey Him and keep doing everything He asks of us. His responsibility is to provide the way He promised.

Obedience Comes Before the Promised Blessing

This principle does not mean we can live however we want and then demand that God provide whatever we ask for.

The Lord's promises are tied to His laws. If we want to claim a blessing that He has connected to obedience, we must obey the law connected to that blessing.

Malachi gives this pattern in the commandment concerning the Lord's storehouse. The Lord told Israel to bring what He required and then said, “prove me now herewith,” promising to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing (Malachi 3:10).

The immediate context is tithes and offerings, but the principle is important: obey what the Lord commands and then trust Him to fulfill what He has promised.

We should not knowingly refuse His commandments, ignore correction, hold onto sin, and then accuse God because the blessing does not come.

This does not mean a person must be perfect before God will help them. It means we cannot knowingly rebel against what He has told us to do while demanding the promised results of obedience.

If you are doing what the Lord has asked, repent when you learn that something is wrong, and keep following the direction He gives, then trust Him. Stand still when He tells you to stand still, work when He tells you to work, give when He tells you to give, leave when He tells you to leave, and wait when He tells you to wait.

Then watch what He does.

Make Things Right Before Asking for the Blessing

I learned another part of this during COVID-19.

I became very sick and was coughing constantly. I could not sleep, breathing was difficult, and I was exhausted. I prayed repeatedly for the Lord to heal me or at least help me sleep, but I did not feel that anything was changing.

Eventually I began listening to a general conference talk, hoping it would help settle my mind enough to sleep.

While I was listening, I was strongly reminded of the Savior's command that if we come before Him and remember that there is something wrong between us and another person, we should first be reconciled and then come to Him (3 Nephi 12:23–24).

I immediately thought of a neighbor I was angry with. I felt misunderstood and judged by him, and I had allowed those feelings to remain.

It was around two or three in the morning, but I texted him. I told him that I had been upset with him and apologized for it.

He did not even know I had been angry with him until he read the message the next day.

Immediately after sending it, I fell asleep.

Later I tried to find the part of the conference talk that had prompted the thought, but the talk did not contain that scripture or teach the thing that had come into my mind. For me, the Spirit had used that moment to tell me what needed to be corrected.

The lesson was simple: I was asking the Lord for a blessing while there was something I already knew, once He brought it to my attention, that I needed to make right.

If you desire a blessing from the Lord, look honestly at your life. If there is something He has told you to repent of, fix, confess, forgive, restore, or obey, do it.

Then ask.

We do not earn God's mercy by becoming perfect, but we should not expect Him to strengthen our rebellion. When He shows us what needs to change, we change it.

Righteous Wants

We also need to understand wants correctly.

Many people assume that the Lord will provide only what is necessary for survival and that wanting anything more is selfish. That is not true.

A desire is not unrighteous simply because it is something we want. The question is whether the desire agrees with God, His commandments, and the kind of person He is making us become.

Righteous wants are desires of the heart that are consistent with God's character and law. They are things we hope for in faith even when they have not yet been received (Alma 32:21; Ether 12:6). We can bring those desires before the Lord and wait for Him to fulfill them according to His wisdom and timing (Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 40:31).

Not every desire comes from God. Some desires come from selfishness, pride, lust, fear, envy, comparison, greed, or the influence of the world and the adversary.

But we should not assume that a desire is unrighteous merely because we want something deeply.

Sometimes the Spirit places or strengthens a righteous desire in us and begins leading us toward it long before we receive it. The fact that a blessing has not yet come does not prove that the desire is wrong.

The Lord knows the difference between a selfish demand and a righteous desire, between lust and love, greed and provision, pride and righteous hope, or impatience and faithful longing.

One useful way to judge a desire is by its fruit.

Charity “seeketh not her own” (Moroni 7:45). A righteous desire moves us toward love, service, generosity, holiness, provision, unity, and the blessing of others.

Wanting to love someone, care for them, provide for them, give good gifts, strengthen them, serve them, protect them, or increase their joy is consistent with charity.

Unrighteous desire moves in the opposite direction. It focuses on what we can get, take, control, possess, or consume. It treats people as a means of satisfying appetite or self-interest instead of asking how we can love and bless them.

The question is not simply, “Do I want this?” The better question is, “Does this desire lead me toward Christ and charity, or toward selfishness and sin?”

The Lord Leads Us Toward Righteous Desires

When a desire is righteous, the Lord does not withhold it simply because He does not want us to have it. He wants to bless His children and give good gifts (Matthew 7:9–11; 3 Nephi 14:9–11).

If a blessing could be given immediately without interfering with needed growth, harming another person, violating His commandments, or bringing something before the right time, there would be no righteous reason for Him to keep it from us.

When the Lord tells us to wait, there is a reason.

Some blessings require preparation in us. Others require changes in circumstances or in other people. Some require us to learn how to receive and use the blessing correctly. At times we may wait a long time, even throughout mortality.

Waiting does not automatically mean the desire is wrong or that the Lord has forgotten us. Often it means He is preparing the way and preparing us.

The Lord does not only give blessings; He teaches us how to receive and carry them without letting them become a source of pride, confusion, selfishness, or sin.

Throughout scripture, the God of Israel leads His people toward promised lands and promised blessings. The road is not always direct or comfortable, but He knows where He is leading them.

If a desire is righteous and we continue obeying Him, we can trust Him to lead us toward its fulfillment at the right time and in the right way.

Needs and Desires Are Often Provided Differently

Immediate needs and righteous desires are both known to the Lord, but they are often provided differently.

Immediate needs may be answered quickly because help is needed now. Righteous desires may require a longer process because the Lord is leading us into the blessing and preparing us to receive it.

That has been my experience. When the need was immediate, the Lord often provided quickly. When the desire involved a larger change in my life, the answer was often, “Be patient. I will bless you.”

The Lord is not only keeping us alive. He is leading us toward joy.

Trust the Good Shepherd

The Lord knows what you need and what you righteously desire. He knows what you have prayed for, cried over, waited for, and tried to surrender to Him.

Do not call every want selfish simply because it has not been fulfilled, and do not assume the Lord cares only about survival and not about joy.

At the same time, bring your desires honestly before Him. Let Him correct what is selfish, sinful, or shaped by the world. If He shows you something that needs to be made right, make it right. If He commands you to act, act.

Then trust Him.

The Good Shepherd knows what you need now and where He is leading you. He will provide what is necessary for the present while preparing you for what comes next. When the path becomes difficult, keep following Him. When something breaks, seek His direction. When resources become low, continue doing what He has commanded and trust Him to provide the way.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. If we hear His voice and obey Him, He will lead us through difficulty, provide what we need along the way, protect us according to His wisdom, and bring us to the good things He has prepared for us.

I testify that God provides. I have seen Him do it repeatedly when I have tried to obey what He asked me to do. When He commands, He prepares a way. When He shows us what must be corrected, we correct it. When we have done what He asks, we can trust Him to fulfill His promises.

Our righteous desires will be fulfilled at the right time and in the right way, our joy will be full, and the blessings of the Lord will be greater than we imagined (Psalm 37:4–5; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Doctrine and Covenants 76:10).

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.