29 January 2012

Sacrament Meeting

The choices that we make right now are going to have an impact on the rest of our lives. We need to be mindful of our Heavenly Father and what He wants for us to do. We know that He has our best interests at heart and wants all of us to be happy.

Christ knows us very well; He atoned for our sins and knows exactly what we are going through in our lives. We should use our GPS (Gospel Positioning System) to turn towards Christ. Heavenly Father wants to know about our lives and what is going on in them. Spiritual deprivation for us is worse even than oxygen deprivation; we must be constantly filling our spiritual tanks with the tools we are given. Remember to look up; listen to our Apostles, Prophets (past and present), and other church leaders. Fill your tank and allow the Atonement to fill your life. Prophets lead us to God; we cannot afford to not listen to the Apostles and Prophets or we will not survive.

Satan gives us many opportunities in which we could latch on to and leave the church, but sometimes those experiences are what draw us closer to the church. At one point in my life, I had every reason to leave the church, to hate some members, however instead of allowing that to rip me away from the church I clung to it. The gospel was my lifeline and because of this, my testimony grew leaps and bounds. We are what stands in the way of allowing Satan to win, do we allow him to rip away our happiness and what we know to be true, or do we stand up for our beliefs? It is our decision to make, the Lord will never force us to obey His will.

Doctrine and Covenants 6: 33
     "Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward."

Mosiah 2:17
     "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

For every question that one might have, the LDS faith has an answer.

Alma 32:27
     "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

We must have a desire, you have to want to know because if you ultimately do not want to draw closer to God you won't. Initially it will be difficult but as time progresses, you will develop the want.

Ether 12:27
     "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

We were made imperfect on purpose. Heavenly Father loves broken things because through the Atonement, broken things can be made whole. With a lot of effort on our part we can be made perfect; it's like working out, it will burn or hurt, but that hurt will feel so good in the long run; it's a good burn!

Moroni 7: 42-44
     "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
      And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.
      If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if we have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."

We can do so much more when we have a Christ centered life.