Faith is Becoming

Having faith in Christ leads to becoming like Him.

"And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek and lowly of heart." - Moroni 7: 43

Being "meek and lowly of heart" means that we are willing to recognize our flaws, or recognize where there is a gap between where we are and where Christ would have us be.

I want to follow Christ.  And, because Christ is the perfect example of living what He teaches, being like Him is the same thing as following His word.  If we want to become like Him, we must live His teachings and commandments.

Being like Christ leads to a better and more happy life.  One of the blessings promised when we work on the gap between ourselves and Christ is suggested in the scripture above: increased faith and hope.

There's my short thought for the day. Think about it. :)

Preparation

"And thus we see that the Lord did visit them in the fullness of his wrath, and their wickedness and abominations had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction." Ether 14:25

The use of the word "prepared" in this verse struck me as I read.  As mentioned in a previous post, the end of the Book of Mormon is filled with war.  Not only war, but war where there doesn't seem to be a "good side" or a "bad side" because everyone has drifted away from God and all things righteous.  It is all about revenge, murder, and power.

This specific record was written by the Prophet of the time, Ether.  He had before prophesied that if the people did not repent, destruction would come upon all of them.  The people continued to pull further and further from God until, at the end of the record, everyone is dead.  Just before this, Ether reminds us why he is including this part of the story, as full of carnage and evil as it is.  He reminds us that the choices the people made are what prepared their destruction. They prepared their own deaths.

When I read this, I thought: 

What am I preparing for?  

Every choice I make will be a step in one direction or another.  Reading that word, prepared, helped me form a goal to think about my choices and their consequences a little bit more.  

When I make the choice to run in the morning even when I'd rather fuse with my mattress, I'm preparing to have a healthier body and heart.  When I decide to read my scriptures even when I'm tired or busy, I am preparing to have the Spirit of the Lord with me as I go throughout my day.  When I study to come closer to Christ, I am preparing for the coming of Christ.

I make small choices every day that prepare me for something. We all do.

What are you preparing for?

Building Hope

It's cool what you learn when you go back and re-study your own notes.  I had missed something important even though I wrote most of it down - which I'm glad I did, because now I have all these spiritual gems to look over again.

Hope is connected to patience. This came up in my study of Christ-like attributes, which I've been discovering are all connected through Christ.  Here is the connection, found in Paul's letter to the Romans:

"...but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us." (Romans 5:3-5)

Hope is an expectation, or trust, that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us.  When we hope, we can have patience through confusion and pain as we go through hard things. In addition, when we remember to have patience with ourselves and with the Lord, our hope is built up as we rely on Him.  This is all made possible through the presence of His Spirit, which is "shed abroad in our hearts" as we remember and feel His love.

So, my friends, I want you to know something.  I want you to know that no matter how hard things are right now, no matter how long it's seems to take for things to get better, your patience will be rewarded - maybe not with a solution just yet, but with an abundant feeling of God's love for you.  He does love you, and He wants to show you just how much.  Talk with Him, and you will feel that love.

And if you need a listening ear, mine is open.

Christ Will Dash My Fears

"...and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them." Mormon 6:7

Footsteps n the Sand, a poem. 

The end of the Book of Mormon is filled with prominently one thing: war.  By the sixth chapter of Mormon, all but 24 of the entire Nephite people is slaughtered by the Lamanites.  The verse above quotes Mormon's comments on how the Nephites felt before the final battle.  They were very afraid.

Previously in the stories of the Book of Mormon, the Nephites often prevailed in war, because they were righteous and had the Lord on their side.  In these final chapters, however, Mormon tells us as readers that the people of Nephi were very wicked and refused to repent.

Mormon specifically says in the above verse that this fear "fills the breasts of the wicked.

Worldly and temporal things let fear dominate our hearts when we are far from the Lord.  It makes sense to me, then, that the opposite would be true: when we are close to the Lord, fear for things we know of in this life will not overwhelm us, for God brings us strength and peace.

When I am close to the Lord, I will not be overwhelmed by stress for school or work or the future or...dating...

He will support me and calm my troubled heart.