How can we be spiritually self-reliant when the scriptures clearly teach that we need to be reliant on God in all things? President Lorenzo Snow has said that the gospel was purposely designed to be difficult to live so that it would turn us to God for supernatural aid to enable us to live it, that without Him we could NOT live it. I think it was designed to lead us to God and to make us dependent on Him. (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, pp 178, 179)
What does it mean to be spiritually self reliant then? This is my take on it. To me it means to have your own testimony and your own relationship with God and not put your trust in the arm of the flesh when it comes to the things of the spirit and how you will live your life. We cannot live on borrowed light, just as the Ten Virgins proved. In the beginning when our faith is weak and we are just starting on our spiritual journey, it is essential for us to believe in the faith of others and to be nourished by their testimony but as you grow and mature in the Gospel, you have to come to stand on your own two feet and make the Atonement active in your life. Only you can do this. By being spiritually reliant on God in all things, we also become spiritually self-reliant. It becomes a matter of your relationship with God. If you do not have this relationship with God and do not rely on him you will eventually end up relying on priesthood leaders to help you solve your problems and give you guidance on your spiritual path. This is a grave mistake because it is putting your trust in the arm of the flesh and that arm very often fails. Priesthood leaders are overburdened these days with their responsibilities, earning a living and taking care of their families. They are there to assist people with their process of repentance but I do not believe they should be holding our hands while we work out our salvation. That responsibility belongs to God. We are responsible for our own spiritual wellbeing and we have all the tools to help us: scriptures, prayer, temple, fasting. The list goes on. If we would just do it our lives would be less complicated. There is more depth to this.
A friend asked me recently 'how do we fully submit our will to God in the light of the fact that we are also taught to be self-reliant'? It seems a contradiction in terms doesn't it? Firstly, our will is the only thing that truly belongs to us that we have to give, all else we have comes from God, including the breath we breathe. Secondly, God's perspective is always eternal and our eternal welfare is the one He is mostly concerned about. A good friend taught me this. Very often these two facts clash in our lives. For us to submit our will to the Father means to want for ourselves what the Father wants and not what we want. That means changing our perspective from a temporal one to a spiritual one. We live in a fallen world and our first instinct is to act as 'the natural man' (Mosiah 3:19) In other words, we are very short sighted. What is needful is for us to come to think as God thinks, to know Him, His mind and His will for His children to such an extent that our first instinct will be to make choices that would benefit us eternally, that which is good for us in the long run and not here and now.
I stand in awe of Third Nephi whose faith on the Lord Jesus Christ was so great that angels ministered to him daily. (3 Nephi 7:18). Imagine having angels coming to you every day. I think his faith was so great because he became so in sync with the Lord that he did nothing that God would not do himself. Because of this God came to have such trust in him that he promised him that 'all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shall not ask that which is contrary to my will'. (Helaman 10:5) In other words, God knew Nephi and that he would not ask for anything inappropriate or not beneficial to his eternal salvation and the salvation of others. When you come to the this point where you are of one mind with the Lord, you are spiritually self-reliant on a deeper level. When you come to this point, it is extremely difficult for the adversary to shake you or entice you to put your trust in the arm of the flesh in any form. And this is where we want to be.
Remember that Satan's way is to have us rely on ourselves and our wisdom, which is very finite and inadequate for the salvation of our souls and he would have us temporally reliant on others. Both of these spell only one thing, bondage. God seeks to make us free, he wants us in partnership with Him so that we will make wise choices that would lead us to optimal freedom.
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