Dieter F. Uchtdorf on overcoming despair through hope

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (1940- ) served as a Seventy from 1994-2004, when he was called as a member of the Quorum of Twelve.  He has served as second counselor in the First Presidency since 2008.

"The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

"Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear."

- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Infinite Power of Hope," Ensign, Nov 2008, pp. 21-24
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"Suffocating darkness" is a very descriptive phrase for the despair used by Satan to "drain" away "all that is vibrant and joyful" as he "bind[s] hearts and minds." The results of a life of despair can include:

• kills ambition
• advances sickness
• pollutes the soul
• deadens the heart

What a contrast between that imagery, the adversary's path, and the path of hope provided by our Heavenly Father!