Where Do You Turn for Truth and Comfort?

We live in a time when more information is available to ordinary people than at any other period in history. A person can carry thousands of books in his pocket, speak instantly with someone on the other side of the world, study almost any subject, receive medical and scientific information, search scripture, listen to the words of prophets, and use artificial intelligence to organize and explain enormous amounts of information. These things can be blessings.

Knowledge is not the enemy of faith. The Lord commanded His people to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” and to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118). He commanded them to learn about things “in heaven and in the earth,” history, nations, kingdoms, and the affairs of the world (Doctrine and Covenants 88:78–80).

Powerful tools are not themselves the problem. We must understand what they can do, what they cannot do, and where we are supposed to turn for the things that only God can give.

Tools Are Not the Source

Technology can help us find information. It can help us study scripture, locate historical information, compare ideas, organize our thoughts, communicate with other people, learn new skills, and solve practical problems. Artificial intelligence can do some of these things with remarkable speed.

But information and revelation are not the same thing. A machine can explain what scripture says, but it cannot give you the witness of the Holy Ghost. It can summarize teachings about Jesus Christ, but it cannot introduce you into a living relationship with Him. It can describe prayer, but it cannot pray for you. It can collect the experiences and opinions of thousands of people, but it cannot replace the voice of the Lord.

The Lord said:

“Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2).

He also reminded Oliver Cowdery:

“Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:23).

There is a difference between learning information about God and receiving something from God. The scriptures, teachings of prophets, good books, technology, teachers, and other people may all help direct us toward truth, but they should ultimately help us come to the Lord, receive the Holy Ghost, learn His voice, and obey Him. When the tool begins replacing that process, it is no longer serving its proper purpose.

Revelation Requires Something from Us

Technology gives answers quickly, and we can become accustomed to asking a question and receiving an immediate response. God does not always work that way.

The Lord told Oliver Cowdery that he had supposed God would simply give him an answer without requiring sufficient effort from him. Instead, the Lord taught:

“You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8).

Revelation requires participation. We study, pray, consider, humble ourselves, repent when the Lord exposes something wrong within us, wait when an answer does not come immediately, and act upon the light we have already received. Through that process, we learn to distinguish the Holy Ghost from our own thoughts, fears, desires, and other influences.

The effort required to seek revelation is not merely an inconvenience standing between us and an answer. It is part of our spiritual development. If God simply supplied every answer the instant we wanted it, we would not necessarily learn faith, patience, discernment, humility, or trust.

Ether taught:

“Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith” (Ether 12:6).

Sometimes we want certainty before we will act. The Lord may instead give enough light to take the next step and require us to trust Him for what comes afterward. Technology that is designed to continually produce answers can train us in a very different habit. We may begin to expect immediate certainty when God is teaching us to seek, listen, wait, discern, and trust.

Do Not Outsource Your Relationship with Christ

Other people can help us understand the gospel. Good teachers can explain scripture. Prophets can teach the word of God. Technology can help us locate and study what has been taught. But no one else can develop our relationship with Jesus Christ for us.

We must pray, repent, learn how the Holy Ghost speaks to us, ask the Lord questions, act upon His direction, and learn His character well enough to recognize whether something leads toward Him. Moroni taught that things which invite us to do good, believe in Christ, love God, and serve Him come from God (Moroni 7:12–17). John likewise warned:

“Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1).

Discernment must be developed. If we continually ask another person, an online community, a social-media feed, or an artificial intelligence system to determine spiritual truth for us, we may become very informed about religion while remaining spiritually dependent.

Jesus Christ lives. He speaks. His people are supposed to learn to hear Him.

When Technology Becomes a Refuge

When you are afraid, where do you turn? When you feel lonely, where do you go? When you are anxious about the future, what do you reach for? When you are hurt, confused, discouraged, or uncertain, what has become your instinctive source of relief?

Many people immediately reach for a phone. They scroll through social media, watch videos, read news, search for reassurance, ask other people what they think, or ask artificial intelligence the same question repeatedly until they receive an answer that makes them feel better.

Not every one of these actions is wrong. Sometimes another person really does have wisdom we need. Sometimes researching a problem is responsible. Sometimes recreation gives needed rest. Serious emotional or mental illness may also require competent professional help, and seeking appropriate help is not a failure of faith.

These things become spiritually dangerous when we use them to avoid coming before God. There is a difference between receiving help and escaping discomfort, between rest and continual distraction, between seeking wise counsel and becoming dependent upon constant reassurance, and between learning something useful and searching endlessly because we are unwilling to trust the Lord without complete certainty.

If every uncomfortable feeling causes us to reach automatically for stimulation, conversation, information, or reassurance, we may never remain spiritually quiet long enough to recognize what God is trying to teach us. Elijah learned that the Lord was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire. After them came “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11–12).

We need enough quiet in our lives to hear it. But remaining before God in uncertainty requires trust. We have to believe that He knows what we need better than we do, and that He can be trusted even when His answer does not immediately remove the discomfort we are trying to escape.

The Good Shepherd Knows What You Actually Need

Jesus Christ does not merely know the question we are asking. He knows why we are asking it. He knows what we fear, what we misunderstand, what we desire, and what we are not yet prepared to receive. He knows when we need comfort and when we need correction, when a burden should be removed and when carrying it for a time will help us grow.

Jesus described Himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14). A good shepherd does not simply give the sheep whatever would make the present moment easiest. He knows where they need to go. A sheep may not understand why the shepherd is leading it away from a comfortable place or through difficult ground, but the shepherd sees farther than the sheep does.

The same is true of us. We may ask God to remove uncertainty while He is teaching us faith. We may ask Him to remove a difficult circumstance while He is developing strength. We may ask for reassurance while what we really need is repentance. We may ask Him to confirm the decision we already want while He is trying to redirect us.

Artificial reassurance can soothe us without changing us. Jesus Christ is not merely interested in making the present moment easier. He is preparing us to become holy.

Trusting the Good Shepherd does not mean that suffering is unimportant or that we should simply endure pain without seeking comfort. Jesus Christ does promise comfort, but the comfort He gives is different from simply escaping whatever hurts.

Comfort Is Not the Same as Escape

Jesus said:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Notice where He tells the burdened to come: unto Him.

Before His death, Jesus promised His disciples the Holy Ghost, whom He called the Comforter. Then He said:

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth” (John 14:27).

Christ distinguishes His peace from what the world gives. The world can offer distraction; Christ gives peace. The world can give temporary reassurance; Christ can give a witness from God. The world can help us avoid thinking about pain; Christ can enter into our pain and strengthen us through it.

Alma taught that the Savior would take upon Himself the pains, sicknesses, temptations, and infirmities of His people so that He would know how to succor them (Alma 7:11–12). When we are hurting, we are not praying to someone who merely understands the definition of suffering. Jesus Christ has entered into it.

We can come to Him honestly. We can tell Him when we are afraid and when we do not understand. We can ask Him for peace, for correction, and for understanding about what He wants us to learn. Then we must remain willing to receive the answer He gives rather than only the answer we wanted.

Sometimes the peace Christ gives comes before the answer we are waiting for. Sometimes His comfort is what enables us to remain faithful while the uncertainty continues.

Sometimes We Must Wait

Relying upon God can be especially difficult when He requires us to wait. Waiting can make us anxious because we do not know what will happen, and that uncertainty can drive us back toward constant searching—one more article, one more opinion, one more conversation, one more prediction, one more attempt to make ourselves certain.

But there are times when we have already done what the Lord requires and the next act of faith is simply to wait.

Isaiah taught:

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31).

Waiting on God is not spiritual inactivity. We continue praying, obeying what we already know, fulfilling our responsibilities, repenting, and serving. But we stop demanding information that God has not yet chosen to give. We trust that He knows where we are even when we cannot yet see where He is leading us.

Learning to wait on the Lord exposes what we truly trust. It reveals whether we can remain faithful without constant reassurance and whether we are willing to let God determine both the answer and the timing.

Examine Where You Turn

Technology itself is not the central issue. The deeper issue concerns the heart.

What do you trust? Where do you seek truth? Where do you seek peace? What do you do when God seems quiet? What occupies the moments that could have been used for prayer, pondering, scripture, family, service, work, or listening to the Holy Ghost?

Have you trained yourself to tolerate spiritual stillness, or does every quiet moment need to be filled? Do you ask God questions and then stay with Him long enough to receive an answer? Do you search online for confirmation of what you want to believe before asking whether the Lord might correct you? Are you using technology as a servant, or has it begun governing your attention, emotions, decisions, and use of time?

Honest answers may reveal changes we need to make. Repentance in this area does not necessarily mean abandoning technology. It means putting it back into its proper place.

If social media repeatedly takes time that belongs to prayer, reduce it. If constant news produces fear and confusion without helping you fulfill any responsibility, step away from it. If you repeatedly seek reassurance from other people instead of developing trust in God, take the fear to Him first. If you use artificial intelligence to study, let it assist your work rather than replacing your thinking, spiritual effort, and revelation.

If a tool interferes with your ability to hear the Holy Ghost, govern the tool. Do not allow the tool to govern you.

Go to the Source

God is the source of truth. Jesus Christ is the living Savior, King, Lawgiver, and Good Shepherd. The Holy Ghost teaches truth and brings revelation. Scripture preserves the word of God and teaches us His character and ways.

These are not relics from a less technologically advanced age. No advancement in human knowledge can make revelation obsolete because revelation was never merely a primitive way of obtaining information. Its purpose is relationship with God.

The Lord is teaching us to know Him, recognize His voice, trust Him when we do not know everything, and obey Him when His answer is difficult. He is changing our hearts. Technology can serve that work, but it cannot replace it.

When you need information, use good tools wisely. When you need appropriate human help, seek it. But when you need to know the will of God, seek God. When you need the witness of truth, seek the Holy Ghost. When you are frightened, burdened, or spiritually lost, come unto Jesus Christ and learn to stay with Him long enough to hear Him.

The Lord has promised:

“Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:23).

That is where truth and peace ultimately meet: in Him.

I testify of this truth, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.