President Joseph F. Smith on how the Gospel changes our life

President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918) was the son of Joseph's brother Hyrum. He was ordained an apostle in 1866 at age 28, and served as a counselor to Brigham Young and the three presidents who followed.  He became the 6th president of the Church in 1901, and served until his death in 1918 at age 80.

"The spirit of the Gospel is designed to make all men good in the sight of God. The Gospel is calculated to remove from us everything that is not consistent with God and the plan of salvation which he has revealed to men. It is designed to qualify us to live so that we may enjoy a fulness of the light of truth, and understand the purposes of God, and be able to live so near to Him that we may be in harmony with His wishes constantly.

"The principles of the Gospel are calculated to make us unselfish, to broaden our minds, to give breadth to our desires for good, to remove hatred, animosity, envy and anger from our hearts, and make us peaceful, tractable, teachable, and willing to sacrifice our own desires, and perchance our own interests, for the welfare of our fellow-creatures, and for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

"A man who cannot sacrifice his own wishes, who cannot say in his heart, 'Father, Thy will be done, not mine,' is not a truly and thoroughly converted child of God; he is still, to some extent, in the grasp of error and in the shades of darkness that hover around the world, hiding God from the presence of mankind.

"Show me a man that is thoroughly converted to the principles of the Gospel, and who can truly say in his heart, 'I know that the Gospel is true,' and I will show you a man that when it comes to asking him to do that which God requires at his hands will have no question in his mind in relation to doing it; he will say, 'Yes, I am ready and willing to do the will of God.'"

- Joseph F. Smith, "Blind Obedience and Tithing," September 3, 1892; see Millennial Star, 20 Jan. 1893, pp. 77-80
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This is a wonderful way of looking at the Gospel of Jesus Christ: its blessing and power in our lives is "to remove from us everything that is not consistent with God and the plan of salvation which he has revealed to men."As we grow in the Gospel, as we repent and change, we leave things behind that are contrary to that spirit and to our peace and happiness. They are gradually replaced with the pure joy that comes from living "so near to Him that we may be in harmony with His wishes constantly." Moroni beautifully described this process in these words: "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness..." (Moroni 10:32). As we do that, removing all forms of "ungodliness" from our lives, the only things left are those that are god-like. We become like Him.

One of the signs of us "hiding God from the presence of mankind," according to President Smith, is that we have not yet abandoned our selfish spirit and learned to seek only the "welfare of our fellow-creatures" and God's ultimate will in our lives. But once we become fully converted, our heart will truly change: