"I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another— I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you" (Mosiah 2:20-25 emphasis added)
I removed the verse numbers so that you could read it more like it would have been said. I had been feeling pretty good about myself up until a week ago. I have had an issue I was struggling with and was doing pretty well at managing it, but it wasn't until I started to boast of myself, that I was reminded and humbled by the Lord. I am an unprofitable servant and I was relying on the arm of man and not the arm of God. 
I'm paraphrasing, but someone told me that you and God are a majority. It doesn't matter how many people are against you, He will always win. If we take into account all of the things mentioned in this passage, it is quite humbling to realize that all that we need to do is keep the commandments. God wants to bless us, He's promised us that He will if we keep His commandments. So why don't we? Don't we want those blessings? Don't we want to be happy? Is it really harder to keep the commandments-when we are supported by the Saviour, by Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost-than to live in the torment that we become trapped in as servants to the adversary? Think hard.
To reinforce this idea, verse 31 says "...if ye shall keep the commandments of my son [Mosiah], or the commandments of God which shall be delivered unto you by him, ye shall prosper in the land, and your enemies shall have no power over you".
Essentially he is saying that if you listen to the words and commandments given of the Lord from the living prophet, and do them, then your enemies will have no power over you. God plus one other person equals a majority. And also, for those of use who know, who have listened to the Prophet and the Lord and don't do those things, "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17) That is what we call a sin of omission, rather than commission. So even if you're not going out and doing horrible things, if you're not going out and doing good, following the commandments of God, then you are committing sins of omission and do need to repent of them.
All of that being said, I've had a pretty humbling 24 hours and I am trying to get back on track. I know that as I strive to be better, that the power of God and of the Saviour's Atonement are with me and supporting me, helping me to become better. I hope you all know that as well.
Until next time,
-J
No comments:
Post a Comment