"A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So this the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved". Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. The Adversary said: "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough".
So that's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord", he said, "I have laboured long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately: "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed but is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock but your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. That you have done. Now, I, my friend, will move the rock".
- Author unknown
Sometimes on our life's journey we come to think that everything depends on us: enduring, serving, overcoming, accomplishing, obeying. Considering the many responsibilities placed on our shoulders day in and day out, this seems like a logical conclusion for many of us. We tend to forget that in this mortal sphere, we are intended to walk by faith and not by capacity. In other words, we are not meant to 'do' this life alone. We of ourselves can do nothing. Even the Saviour of the world admitted this to be true of Himself: "I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of the Father who sent me" (John 5:30). The scriptures tell us that our faith can be so powerful that it can move mountains but in our exerted efforts of pushing and straining we tend to overlook who is at the other end of our faith. By all means, we should exercise the faith that moves mountains but we must remember that it is still God who moves them.
All God asks of us is willingness and obedience. We, by our own weak efforts and finite wisdom could never make of ourselves what He has intended for us to be. It was His purpose from the beginning that we become co-heirs with Christ in His kingdom. To become those heirs, we have been given saving ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ and commandments to live by. The interesting thing here is that none of us can live up to these commandments of ourselves. If we could, we would not need the saving ordinances to save us, or the Saviour to die for us. President Lorenzo Snow said that the gospel was so designed that it would be too hard for us to live it without God's help. Perhaps if it was designed so that we could live it without divine help we would lose focus of our eternal home. Perhaps if we had the power to save ourselves we would become as the Son of the Morning who fell because of self-righteous pride. President Snow's theory should give hope to many of us who are struggling to live the Gospel and feeling sharply our shortcomings:
"The character of the religion that we have espoused demands a certain course of conduct that no other religion that we know of requires of its adherents; and the nature of those demands upon us [is] such that no person can comply with them, unless by assistance from the Almighty. It is necessary that we comprehend, at least, in part, the great and important blessings that we are to derive, eventually by complying with the requirements of the religion or gospel that we have received. The sacrifices that are required of us are of that nature that no man or woman could make them, unless aided by a supernatural power; and the Lord, in proposing these conditions, never intended that his people should ever be required to comply with them unless by supernatural aid, and of that kind that is not professed by any other class of religious people. He has promised this aid...." (Lorenzo Snow, Teachings of Presidents of the Church, With God All Things Are Possible, p 178-9)
This aid that God has promised to all His children so they could live the Celestial law in the telestial world is called grace. Grace is both God's good will and a divine power that we can access here and now for our personal perfection. Grace is twofold. Our part is the willingness to obey and the Lord's is to empower us beyond our natural capacity. In other words, all we need is to be willing to push whatever rock the Lord requires of us, but He in the end removes the rock: "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" (Ether 12:27). The Saviour would not ask of us anything that He himself has not done. The amazing thing is that He subjected himself to the temptations and weaknesses of mortality not because He needed them but so that He could, through overcoming, gain compassion and power to succor us and perfect us. To 'succor' means to come to one's aid, help or relief. Because He himself has overcome the world, He has gained the power He can give us to overcome also: "Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me" (D&C 50:41).
Our willingness to obey and to overcome the weaknesses and trials of mortality, through God's grace, brings us greater rewards than the reward of salvation. The Lord tells us of this significant reward in Revelation: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God..." (Rev 3:12); "A pillar in the temple of my God" means "a person of stature and eminence in the Celestial Kingdom of God. Heaven itself, the house and abode of God, is a temple, the chief and supreme temple of eternity" (Bruce R. McConkie). Christianity at large focuses only on salvation and the role of grace pertaining to that doctrine as outlined by Paul who said: "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). Well did Paul say that salvation is free and none of us are to boast that we have in any way earned it. Through the infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ all men will be saved and resurrected through no effort of their own. Exaltation, however, is a different matter. Exaltation must be earned: "Salvation in all its forms, kinds, and degrees comes by the grace of God....Men are saved by grace alone in the sense of being resurrected; they are saved by grace coupled with obedience, in the sense of gaining eternal life..." (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Volume II, Acts-Phillipians, p 492-3).
Eternal life does not only mean 'life with God' but 'life as gods'. As Revelation points out, he that overcomes will not only be a pillar in the temple of God but shall have God's name written on him: "God's name is God. To have his name written on a person is to identify that person as a god. How can it be said more plainly? Those who gain eternal life become gods! Their inheritance is both a fullness of the glory of the Father and a continuation of the seed forever and ever. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them" (D&C 132:19-20) (McConkie, DNTC, 3:458, The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p 453).
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things:
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment:
and I will not blog out his name out of the book of life,
but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
(Rev 21:7, 3:5,21)
".....and a book of remembrance was written before him
for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
in that day when I make up my jewels......
(Malachi 3:16,17)
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