Ether 12: 3-4

3 For he [Ether] did cry from the morning,
Why was it so important that Ether share this message
even until the going down of the sun,
of faith? How is it that this destitute society needed to
exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance
understand first and foremost that it is by faith that all
lest they should be destroyed,
things are done? Were they hopeless as we tend to be?
saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled—
Did they not see an escape from their fallen state?
4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God
Did they feel like poverty of spirit was as oppressive
might with surety hope for a better world,
and difficult to break as the cycle of poverty?
yea, even a place at the right hand of God,
It is as if Ether is saying: “You CAN lift yourselves
which hope cometh of faith,
out of the grasp of this depraved state:
maketh an anchor to the souls of men,
you can stop the violence that enshrouds you and
which would make them sure and steadfast,
be at peace with God and with yourself!
always abounding in good works,
Start by believing in God. Believe in His better state.
being led to glorify God.
Know that He has power to lift you to that better state. He wants you to be there. And He can make it possible!” Listen to the stability that He is promising here: an anchor for your life to make you firm and immovable. Cross reference “sure and steadfast” to D&C 88: 133, where a similar description is used as a standard of the School of the Prophets. They all covenanted to be “fixed, immovable, and unchangeable” in their determination to love one another, to be a “friend and brother”. What an insight this adds: knowing that we not only hope for this better world, but covenant to make the world that surrounds us part of that better world. Do we break the covenant? Of course! But we are committed to it, and we repent when we break it and come back to full determination to heal and bless. What a wonderful motivation to make us “sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works”(Ether 12: 4)! So this is the process: we believe that there is a better world, that God can bring us into that world, and that God has sufficient power to bless us to make this present world, at least in the realm of our relationships, like the “place at the right hand of God”(Ether 12: 4). So lifting ourselves out of the miserable and fallen state that we are in is that process by which we make our love for one another like the perfect Love that Heavenly Father shows us.