I’ve been thinking more about this God we worship who is called Jesus Christ. Whenever I consider the worlds he has made, his wondrous life and works, I am astounded that He submitted to such humiliation and pain and that any of us could have inflicted it. How could we have turned so far from Him whom we loved and supported not so long ago? How could He love us so much and we be so fickle in our affection? Even after all we have been given, I’m appalled at how “prone to wander” I am personally and I pray every day that He will forgive my unworthiness and extend His great mercy to all those around me.
I did have an epiphany this week which I hope I can articulate. We know we are given Commandments to protect us (like the fence at the top of the hill instead of the ambulance at the bottom). We also know if we live the commandments, we will be blessed (all blessings are predicated on law). But there is yet another reason that had never occurred to me. As I was studying Preach My Gospel, I read where commandments are given to us to "apply gospel principles"--a lab assignment of sorts where we have to put abstract concepts into practice; somewhat like writing a paper improves our vocabulary and logic.
Let's say the commandment I'm working on is charity (if we have not charity, we are nothing) and I am going to apply the first two principles of the Gospel which are faith and repentance. I faithfully make my desire for charity a matter of study, prayer, and fasting, trusting God that He will teach me to love like He does. My mind becomes more alert as to what charity is and what it is not. I begin to notice how often I am impatient, unkind, puffed up, seeking my own, easily provoked or offended, and judgmental. I am shocked. Faith leads me to change my mind (the definition of repentance). I stop indulging in "thought sins" that lead to hostility (as Elder Lynn G. Robbins taught).
After awhile, I notice that I am miraculously losing my desire for sin through no thought of my own. I wonder if this is what it means to be cleansed or sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The "good news", the truth, is that even at this fundamental level, God is mercifully saving me from myself, making my burden lighter and my cross easier to bear. I feel more gratitude and trust (more faith) and I am more successful at avoiding contention because I am not only losing my lust for it (I am becoming repentant) but I am feeling more love for the Savior (we love Him because He first loved us). I notice that people are responding to the love God has for them because I am not getting in the way of it as much.
In summary, love the verb becomes Love the noun as our growing faith (trust in Christ) leads to repentance (a change of mind and heart or conversion). And what are we being converted to? If His goal is to bring about our Eternal Life, then perhaps it has something to do with that. Perhaps Commandments are the curriculum that produces the ability to live His kind of life. So complaining or resisting would be like saying, "I don't want to be a King or Queen. It's too hard, too long, too incomprehensible, too boring, too unlike me" (which is the whole point, I thought). This God we worship paid an incomprehensible price so He could qualify to assist us and we don't want it???? As for me, "I will reach for the joy of celestial to reward, till all that God offers is mine" (to quote one of my favorite songs).
No comments:
Post a Comment