God’s Intent Is to Bring You Home
Patrick Kearon, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder Kearon describes God's intent to bring His children home with love and mercy.
Open talk in Gospel LibraryIdeas for Opening the Lesson
- Start by asking class members to share experiences when they felt God's love and guidance in their life.
- Begin with a brief discussion about the purpose of our mortal life and the role of God's plan in our journey back to Him.
- Invite members to share their thoughts on what it means to them that God wants to bring us home.
Topics
God's Plan is Designed to Bring Us Home
Elder Kearon emphasized that God's plan is not about keeping us out, but about bringing us home. He used the metaphor of a roadblock to illustrate that God does not place barriers in our path, but rather, He relentlessly pursues us and employs all possible measures to bring us back.
Our Father’s beautiful plan, even His “fabulous” plan, is designed to bring you home, not to keep you out. No one has built a roadblock and stationed someone there to turn you around and send you away. In fact, it is the exact opposite. God is in relentless pursuit of you.
- How does knowing that God's plan is designed to bring us home affect your perspective on life's challenges?
- What are some ways you have felt God's relentless pursuit of you in your life?
- Can you share a time when you felt like there was a "roadblock" in your spiritual journey, and how you overcame it?
- How can we help others see that God is in relentless pursuit of them?
- What are some practical ways we can align our lives with God's plan to bring us home?
The Intent of God's Various Plans
Elder Kearon discussed the intents of God's various plans - happiness, redemption, mercy, and salvation. He underscored that these plans are not designed to prevent our happiness or leave us as we are, but to extend mercy, bring us happiness, and ultimately, to save us.
The intent of the Father’s great plan of happiness is your happiness, right here, right now, and in the eternities. It is not to prevent your happiness and cause you instead worry and fear.
- How have you experienced happiness through living the principles of God's plan?
- In what ways have you felt God's mercy extended to you as you've strived to live His plan?
- How can understanding the intent of God's various plans help us in our daily lives?
- What changes might we need to make to align our lives more fully with God's plan of happiness?
- How can we help others understand and live according to the intents of God's plans?
Jesus's Role in God's Plan
Elder Kearon highlighted the role of Jesus Christ in God's plan. He emphasized that Jesus's will is the Father's will and that His intent is to make eternal life possible for all of God's children.
Jesus’s will is the benevolent Father’s will! He wants to make it possible for every last one of His Father’s children to receive the end goal of the plan—eternal life with Them. None is excluded from this divine potential.
- How does knowing that Jesus's will aligns with the Father's will influence your faith in Him?
- What are some ways that Jesus has made eternal life possible for you personally?
- How can we help others understand Jesus's role in God's plan?
- What steps can we take to align our will with that of the Father and the Son?
- How does the understanding that "none is excluded from this divine potential" affect your view of yourself and others?
The Infinite Reach of Christ's Atonement
Elder Kearon spoke about the infinite reach of Christ's Atonement, assuring us that it covers everyone, including ourselves and those we love. He emphasized that Christ will not refuse us when we bring to Him our broken hearts and contrite spirits.
If you are prone to worry that you will never measure up, or that the loving reach of Christ’s infinite Atonement mercifully covers everyone else but not you, then you misunderstand. Infinite means infinite. Infinite covers you and those you love.
- How does understanding the infinite reach of Christ's Atonement bring you comfort?
- Can you share an experience when you felt the power of Christ's Atonement in your life?
- What can we do to better understand and accept the infinite reach of Christ's Atonement?
- How can we help others recognize and accept the infinite reach of Christ's Atonement?
- What changes might we need to make to more fully access the power of the Atonement in our lives?
God's Intent to Heal and Bring Peace
Elder Kearon concluded by reiterating that God's intent is to heal us, give us peace, and bring us home. He testified that God's design, plan, purpose, intent, wish, and hope are all centered on these outcomes.
The Father’s design, His plan, His purpose, His intent, His wish, and His hope are all to heal you, all to give you peace, all to bring you, and those you love, home.
- How have you experienced God's healing and peace in your life?
- What can we do to more fully accept God's intent to heal us and give us peace?
- How can we help others experience God's healing and peace?
- What does it mean to you that God's intent is to bring you home?
- How can we align our desires with God's intent, wish, and hope for us?
Additional Discussion Questions
- How does understanding God's intent for us influence our daily choices?
- How can we help those who feel distant from God understand His intent to bring them home?
- What are some ways we can more fully embrace God's plan of happiness?
- How does knowing that God's intent is our happiness impact our view of trials and challenges?
- What steps can we take to more fully access the power of Christ's Atonement?
- How can we better align our will with God's intent for us?
- What can we do to help others understand and accept the infinite reach of Christ's Atonement?
- How can we foster a greater desire to return to our Heavenly Father's presence?
- How can we support those who feel they are not worthy of God's love and mercy?
- What steps can we take to be more receptive to God's healing and peace?
