I DO ALWAYS THOSE THINGS WHICH PLEASE HIM

 

I reflected on something during this past Easter that has changed my life. It came to me this year because I was ready for it. 

 

It has been extremely difficult for me for many years to actually verbalise to God my ‘full’ submission to His will. I have had a desire to do it but the actual commitment always conjured up in my mind that God’s will would probably include pain; more than I have already suffered. Remember King Benjamin’s discourse on overcoming the natural man, part of which states that we need to be willing ‘to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict’ upon us (Mosiah 3:19)? “Inflict” is a hard word. The dictionary defines it as: to impose as something that must be borne or suffered; to impose anything unwelcome; to deal or deliver as a blow. Hence my fear….

What intrigued me this Easter was the Saviour’s complete willingness to suffer ‘the blow’. Before facing the agony of Gethsemane, Jesus said to His disciples that the hour was coming when they would be scattered and go their own way leaving Him alone and then He said: “….yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32). On another occasion He clarified this by saying: “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). These statements indicate that He had confidence in Father’s assistance for the duration of his upcoming crucible because He was willing to do His will. Imagine His surprise when that assistance was withdrawn; when He became ‘sore amazed’ (Mark 14:33) to the point of asking: “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Did He have the power to come down from the cross when that question crossed His lips? Yes He did. But even when He felt abandoned, He pressed on submitting to Father’s will, no matter how gruesome the inflicted ‘blow. And then He was able to say prior to His last moment: “….Father it is finished, thy will is done….” (JST Matthew 27:50a)

 

Some years ago I had a priesthood blessing from my Bishop. In it he said that my life was planned for me in pre-existence and that I accepted that plan because of my great faith in Jesus Christ. Last year I had a very vivid memory of a moment in my pre-earth life. I was sitting with the Saviour and I heard Him say to me: “I will save you and I will make up for everything.” I understood then more fully why I had accepted that plan, which has included some painful ‘blows’. I remembered His promise to me this Easter and I knew I was ready to fully submit and I have wondered since I have done so why I had waited so long because so many of my fears and worries have fled and have been replaced by trust that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). 

 

We might have to suffer some blows in this life. And we might have to suffer them alone. But fortunate for us Christ has suffered them all. By virtue of our discipleship, we have access to His  reservoir of endurance, strength and power that is offered to all the faithful. May we be able to say, without trepidation and fear: “I do always those things that please Him”, following the example of Him who submitted to it all that He might overcome all and make it possible for us to bear it all.

 

 

Cathryne Allen

(Art by Yongsung Kim)

DWELLER OF A TENT

In the first book of his record, Nephi mentions four different times that his father lived in a tent (1 Nephi 2:15, 1 Nephi 9:1, 1 Nephi 10:16, 1 Nephi 16:6). Considering how laborious engraving of the golden plates was, one cannot help but ask why would Nephi want to bother to impress upon us this minor and seemingly insignificant detail. Obviously, it wasn't insignificant to Nephi. Besides being a God fearing man, in 600 BC, his father Lehi was a rich and resourceful merchant successfully building a nest egg for his old age. By all accounts his future promised a life of ease and luxury but God had other plans. He revealed to Lehi what was coming to Jerusalem, a city whose wickedness was so great that God did not only send one prophet to call its' inhabitants to repentance but as many as seven. Lehi was one of those prophets. When he came perilously close to losing his life, he gathered his family, fled his home and found himself in the desert, living in a tent. So why Nephi's focus on the tent? Obviously it was to highlight the contrast of his father's cushy life (1 Nephi 2:4) on the outskirts of Jerusalem with his life after he had chosen to sacrifice everything to live according to God's will. As a result of this sacrifice,  he swapped his riches for a tent but he saved his family.

In Lecture Sixth of the Lectures On Faith, Joseph Smith points out that the ancient saints were able to endure any fate and any loss and even suffer most horrid deaths because they had the assurance that they were pursuing a course which was agreeable to the will of God. He stresses several times that those who have this knowledge have "the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation" (Lecture Sixth, para 7). What did this kind of faith do for Lehi? It enabled him to boldly complete one of the most demanding and difficult journeys, across waters he had never before travelled to a land he had never before seen. When we come to the point of such faith, we do not mind living in a tent because we then believe God when He says: "if you give up 'this little', I will give you 'this much'." In simple terms, if you sacrifice your all here and now, I will later give you something much better, even life eternal.

Once again, 'a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation' (Lecture Sixth, para 7). In the category of 'all things' required of us as a sacrifice would fall not only temporal goods but our self will, desires, appetites, intentions and agendas for personal gain in the form of power, honour and worldly praise and self advancement. Joseph Smith calls those who sacrifice all in pursuit of a life that is in accordance with God's will 'the favourites of heaven'. Imagine being one of God's favourites......

Perhaps when we have sacrificed all, joyfully, to pursue a life conducive to the will of God,  the power of faith will be so great within us that we will be like that faithful, bold and resourceful merchant from the outskirts of Jerusalem who stood on the banks of the Red Sea, with no ship in sight, proclaiming: 

"I have obtained a land of promise" (1 Nephi 5:5).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lehi Examines Plates by Joseph Franklin Brickey)