Seeking Revelation Leads Us to Unity With God

 A passage I love sharing with others is John 17:20-22.  In John 17, the Savior prayed to the Father (in what we sometimes term the "intercessory prayer), and in verses 20-22 He said this: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one".  It is our Savior's great desire that we, His followers, be one with Him and the Father as they are united.  One of the most important aspects of such unity is submission of our will to that of the Father, modeled by our Redeemer in the Garden of Gethsemane as He said, "not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42)

Perhaps it seems to be not immediately related at first, but in recent years, President Nelson has put a lot of emphasis on seeking personal revelation.  In the April 2018 general conference, in what I would consider the most profound statement to have been made in the last decade (at least), he said, "in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.  My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation."  (from the talk Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives)  In the general conference that was broadcast less than a month ago, he spoke of the importance of full-time missions work for young people (and the responsibility young men have to serve), and encouraged them to pray about it.  "Pray to know if the Lord would have you serve a mission, and the Holy Ghost will respond to your heart and mind."

He also referred to it as a "decision", because it always is, but encouraged us to pray to know God's will about it.

I remember being encouraged to pray to God about the same thing, and I remember my response.  I don't remember who I was speaking with or what else occurred in that conversation, but the general question was along the lines of "are you going to serve a full-time mission?"  The other person said I should pray about it.  In response, I basically said, "Well, I already know what the answer will be."  I don't think I had as much familiarity with seeking answers to pray at that younger age, but I did recognize that God would give me an answer to my prayer, and in that case I knew what it would be.  But knowing God's will isn't all that we need; the choice remained for me then, and still remains for me now, whether I will choose to do His will.  It is definitely a crucial decision to demonstrate our faith and submissiveness to God through such choices.

As Jesus Christ said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)  And as King Benjamin taught, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19)

Even in merely considering the act of discovering God's will through prayer, I begin making a decision about whether I will follow my own desires or submit to that higher will.  Seeking revelation from God tends to provide us not merely with general knowledge, but especially a knowledge of what we should do.  As we seek and open ourselves to His answers, we find opportunity to follow His will, and thus we make steps toward greater unity with Him and with our Savior, who enables us to repent and become more than we already are.  Earnestly seeking revelation is thus a major part of exaltation.

Last thoughts for now:
I intend for personal revelation to constantly be a part of my life.  There will be times when it will be easier or more difficult in some way for me to do things I know God desires of me, but I know that I can seek God's will through prayer in the name of Christ, and that in doing so I can reform my own will.  I hope to do so often.

Repenting Early Instead of Regretting Later

A poignant line from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Maud Muller" reads: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'"  What Whittier describes is a fictional account of a judge who loses a potential love for a young woman, because she is of low social status, and both he and the woman throughout their lives remember the other and regret "what might have been".  While the account is fictional, the fact is that we all have only one life to live and as time passes we may well wish that we had made choices differently.

Yesterday, I saw a bit of TV footage of a former celebrity being taken in handcuffs by police officers after receiving a prison sentence for crimes he committed many, many years ago.  The man had been well-known and well-loved almost universally by society for many years, but now he has lost most people's love and respect.  Granted, my basic assumption is that the justice system worked properly and he’s getting a legal punishment that is deserved--I don't doubt that--but it still strikes me as tragic.  Fame and the loss of it is of minor consequence, but what is happening to him personally is something else.  I couldn’t see his face all that well, but he didn’t seem happy or strong.  The man is old, and if anything, the feeling that seemed apparent in his face and his movement was only a recognition of something horrible and an inability to do anything about it.

I imagine that at some point in the past he probably felt guilty about what he’d done, and I think everyone that does wrong either fully repents or finds a way to keep living despite being guilty, whether they feel guilty or not.  That second possibility can be a very bad thing, in that if people find a way to move on without setting things right (as much as is possible), that in itself can prevent them from ever setting things right and restoring the parts of their soul that are damaged.  I can’t help but think that this old man has a very different outlook on life and his own actions, compared to the way he did decades ago, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he felt like it would have been much better to have had this justice attended to much earlier in his life.  I imagine that he has no desire to hurt anyone now, but regardless, he has to deal with the consequences of his actions and I’m sure he regrets all of this happening at this point in his life (for one reason or another).

I could be wrong about his thoughts; whether or not he really feels any of that, I can’t be sure.  But, I am sure that everyone who doesn’t repent will feel that same kind of regret, though when applied to an eternal judgment I think that feeling will be deeper.  At the same time, I think it will be balanced by a sense of God’s perfect justice.  I imagine that understanding God’s justice cannot be a complete comfort to people, but I think it will in some way balance the regret (the foundations of which will be immutable).  That balance isn't something to hope for, though; I would hope that we would be able to approach our final judgment in a different way, because of how we act following our own wrongdoing.  All of the guilt and regret that we feel early in life will be valuable if it leads us to correct our wrongs.

Last thoughts for now:
What might yet be is that we might be able to gain all that our Heavenly Father has, including the greatest joy possible.  We all will commit sin, but we all have an opportunity to right our wrongs.  Thankfully, during this mortal life it's never too late, but with every day that we let slip by without repenting, we are less likely to choose repentance.  May we all show gratitude for Christ's Atonement by examining our lives and determining to set right those things that we have done wrong, and may we find joy and peace in doing so.

By Small and Simple Things

"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass..."
  --Alma the Younger to his son Helaman (Alma 37:6)

I've seen that passage many times, and I always wanted to appreciate meaning in it, but yesterday I read it differently for the first time.

I always used to take the meaning as something like, "Pay attention to the small things, because sometimes they're important because they play a part in larger things."  But that's not what the passage says.  The prophet Alma wasn't telling his son that small things are only sometimes important.  The words in that passage of scripture declare a broad truth: that, as a rule, great things happen by means of small things.  That's how life works.

It's easy for me to reflect on Army training exercises or other operations and see this principle in action.  When a large unit accomplishes anything, it happens through multiple people taking and issuing instruction, and through many very small actions over a long period of time.  Many soldiers conducting individual training or learning some seemingly mundane skill may feel like the small, simple task is not very important, but a large exercise comes together only through many people performing many small tasks.

My greatest hopes are, I believe, being realized through simple actions.  My greatest desire is for my children, that they will be faithful disciples of Christ and productive members of society.  I take many small moments to teach them little things about everything from history to science to language to anything else.  The small and simple actions I think are most important are those we've been counseled repeatedly to perform: prayer and scripture study.  Our (usually) nightly tradition of "Family Time", during which we sing a bit, study a few verses of scripture, and pray together, is of the greatest importance to me.  It only takes a few minutes, and the lessons learned are often small, but I do it all hoping that my children will be strong adults, and that will be a great thing.

Last thoughts for now:
I've long taken a view that small things are important.  (I even included a similar thought in my book.)  But perhaps I wanted to take an easier view of things--that the small actions we take, or the small thoughts or feelings we harbor, or any of the other various small concerns we have from day to day are only sometimes important for a larger purpose.  I think that now I have a better understanding of the principle Alma taught to his son.  Of course, I still fail in many small things from day to day, but I continually seek to repent and do better, and I will never underestimate how vital they are.

The Few That Are Chosen

There are several ways of making a particular distinction; that is, several different appellations: an elect people, a chosen people, a peculiar people.

Doesn't it seem strange to consider some people as "special"?  In principle, God loves us all, right?  And he's no respecter of persons?  Of course.  (Acts 10:34, Doctrine and Covenants 1:35, 38:16)  Then why and more importantly how are certain peoples distinguished in the eyes of the Lord?

I was reading to my children just now before they went to bed.  Because it's Sunday, we were reading from the scripture story picture books produced by the Church.  We read the story of the Jaredites.  Something struck me as interesting, especially in the abbreviated form.  While the Jaredites started out as a righteous people (or at least they were following a very righteous man--the brother of Jared), after they reach the promised land the next thing that happens is this: they become wicked.  Very wicked.  Wicked to the point of being destroyed (by themselves, in this case, but destroyed all the same).

This isn't really surprising, because there is already precedent.  Those of us with extended hindsight can see the same occurrence happening throughout scripture.  The first instance was with Adam and Eve, two of the most trusted of Heavenly Father's spirit children: a bulk of their children became so wicked that they merited destruction by flood.  Another easily remembered example comes from the people of Isreal after the Exodus.  They looked to a prophet for deliverance, trusted him enough to follow him out of Egypt, and received help from God in the form of many wonders, but then committed such abhorrent sins that they had to wander in the wilderness until that generation had died (40 years).

Another example is that of Lehi's family, though in their case it's more clear that the actions of a few people early on had a significant bad influence on their progeny.  In general, however, we see simply that civilizations often have a trend of becoming wicked even if they have the best starting conditions.  I know of only one exception; the city of Enoch was so righteous (a true Zion) that it was taken into heaven (see Moses 7:23).  Even the Nephites, after having had the wicked sifted out from among them through disaster and having received a visit from the resurrected Christ Himself, only maintained their righteousness for a couple of centuries.

Why does this happen?  Because we are granted the ability to exercise our own moral agency, and to maintain the standards of Zion requires full dedication, which most are not willing to give.  God knows that, given our agency, we will use it in different ways, and we're all going to use it poorly at times.  Individuals, families, and nations will often turn to wickedness.  I suppose that God could at a given moment get a report showing what percent of His children, after their final judgment, merited each kingdom; either way, He knows that some will inherit celestial glory, some will inherit terrestrial glory, some will inherit telestial glory, and some will inherit no glory at all.

While God knows we will sin, He has planned for us to succeed.  The key is that we have been provided with a Savior who has atoned for us all:
  "O how great the holiness‍ of our God! For he knoweth all‍ things, and there is not anything save he knows it.
  And he cometh into the world that he may save‍ all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains‍ of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.
  And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.
  And he commandeth all men that they must repent, and be baptized‍ in his name, having perfect faith‍ in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.
  And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure‍ to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it." (2 Nephi 9:20-24)

How do we receive the grace of our Savior?  By making and keeping covenants.  Without them, human nature will lead us to error (or, put differently, "the natural man is an enemy to God"--Mosiah 3:19).  That's the distinguishing factor, and therein lies the "why" of the distinction as not just the "chosen people" or the "elect" but also as the "covenant people" of the Lord.  We are distinguished in that we are supposed to make a demonstrated willful act to show that we will follow the will of God through His plan.  Sure, we are still imperfect after making covenants; some of us will make mistakes and repent, and others will even fail to repent and lose their reward.  Thus, among the covenant people of God there can still be and sometimes are great problems, and we are ever in need of prophets and other leaders to guide, inspire, and encourage us.  But in each case of an "elect" people they have made covenants.  Even in the passage above we see a necessary covenant: baptism.  It is through baptism that we become the covenant people of the Lord, or, in other words, latter-day saints.

Last thoughts for now:
Making and keeping covenants is how we become the chosen people of God as members of His Church, and He has given us these covenants in order to allow us to be sanctified and justified and thus to fulfill His plan.  That's the "why"; that's why some are "chosen" despite the fact that we all invariably misuse our agency to some degree.  The beauty of it (and this is real beauty) is that "he cometh into the world that he may save‍ all men if they will hearken unto his voice".  We all can receive the greatest blessings of God if we are willing, and if we take care to keep our hearts set on the kingdom of God.  It is my goal to have such willingness in my heart.  It is my goal to encourage others to do the same.

A Mighty Change of Heart

All three speakers in church  today taught about reverence.  It's a theme that the bishop has addressed more than once recently.  The talks were very much of an instructive nature, with particular direction given, such as statements that we should arrive early to our meetings and not carry on casual conversation in the chapel.  In other words, we were told to do something because we (as a whole) need to change what we are doing.

Without a doubt, the following are true:
Only some who heard were really listening.
Only some who really listened identified themselves as needing to change.
Only some who knew they needed to change made a determination to take specific action to cause that change.

I taught the teachers today about the change of heart we need to experience as we give Jesus Christ's Atonement power in our lives.  We read scriptures that taught us that we must have "a broken heart and a contrite spirit" (2 Nephi 2:7), "godly sorrow [that] worketh repentance to salvation" (2 Corinthians 7:10), and "a mighty change in[...]our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2)  Though I don't claim to have experienced this entirely, I have felt the power of the Christ's Atonement in my life as it has changed my disposition to no longer desire things I used to desire, and it's wonderful.  I intend to keep pursuing that change.

It seems to me (though I don't want to misjudge anyone) that many people enter into patterns of living that are comfortable to them and then don't take action to change in any way.  I cannot accept such a thing in my life; I know that I need to change because I'm imperfect and I need to repent.  That's a very broad statement, but I do hear specific words from church leaders or church members, and I feel specific guidance from the Holy Ghost, that make it clear that I need to do something I'm not already doing, start doing something that I'm not doing, or do something differently.  I'd better be changing; if I'm not changing, I'm not progressing--I'm not learning!

Sometimes it's hard to hear that what we're doing is wrong.  Sometimes it's actually very hard to hear that the way we do things somehow *isn't* the best way of doing things.  We have to be of a mind to take instruction willingly and give up habits or methods to which we have become attached, thus possessing the so-important "broken heart and a contrite spirit".  We have to give up our desires and our attachments, and that's why we are told multiple times in scripture that a broken heart and a contrite spirit is the type of sacrifice that we need to make.  (Psalms 51:17, 3 Nephi 9:20, Doctrine and Covenants 59:8)  To be willing to make that sacrifice is to be teachable; it's being humble.  Showing that willingness and humility definitely falls into the category of "pursuits that are difficult but worthwhile".

It can be very hard, but it ought to be hard.  Otherwise, it wouldn't be a "mighty" change of heart.

Last thoughts for now:
I'm grateful for God's mercy in teaching me so much in the past and I trust Him to continually direct me in His wisdom.  Sometimes it will be a stinging blow to my pride, but every time He gives me direction I know it will be for my own benefit.  I hope to often make the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  I believe in learning and growing.  I know that it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can repent and be like Him.