Daily and With Exactness

Last weekend was the 179th semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have grown to love these conferences for the spiritual nourishment and strength they provide me. I believe the men and women who speak during these conferences are called of God and that they speak the words that the Lord would have me hear.

I'd like to share my favorite talk from this last conference. It is titled Preserving the Heart's Mighty Change, given by Dale G. Renlund.

Elder Renlund, a doctor, teaches about how to maintain a spiritually changed heart by using the example of a physically transplanted heart. These are the points he shares about heart transplants and how the recipients need to care for their new hearts:

• The recipient's body sees the new heart as foreign and will attack it. Left unchecked, the body's natural response is to reject the new heart. Without a heart, obviously, the patient will die.

• Medicines can suppress this natural response of the body, but they must be taken daily and with exactness.
  

• Occasional heart biopsies must be performed to monitor the condition of the new heart so that if there are signs of rejection, adjustments in the medications can be made.

• Some patients actually become casual in their care of their new heart by skipping medicines here and there and by not getting their follow-up appointments (biopsies) as frequently as they should. They think because they feel good that all is well, but they are putting themselves at risk to shorten their life.

Just as a heart transplant is the "ultimate operation" for our physical body, the same is true for our spirits. The Lord has told us "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26)

This spiritual change of heart occurs through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, which are:

faith,
repentance,
baptism,
and the gift of the Holy Ghost

Left unchecked, the tendency of the natural man is to reject this spiritually changed heart and allow it to harden, jeopardizing eternal salvation and leading to a spiritual death.

This natural tendency can be suppressed by "medicine" taken daily and with exactness.

What is the "prescribed medication" that will help us to maintain our spiritually changed heart? For this answer, Elder Renlund turns to the example of a people in the Book of Mormon who, after they were taught the gospel and converted to the Lord, "never did fall away!" (Alma 23:6)

These people were "distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men; for they were perfectly honest and upright in all things; and they were firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end." (Alma 27:27) We also "know that they taught their children the gospel in their homes and that they buried their weapons of war, distancing themselves from temptations."
(This is one of my favorite pictures and stories in the Book of Mormon, by the way!)

Through analyzing the example of these people of Ammon, as they come to be known in the Book of Mormon, Elder Renlund presents the following as the "medication" that we can take daily and with exactness in order to maintain our spiritually changed heart:

• maintain faith in Jesus Christ by:
  

prayer,
study of the scriptures,
partaking of the Sacrament weekly,
and having the Holy Ghost as your constant companion

• actively help and serve others and share the gospel with them
• be perfectly upright and honest in all things, holding your covenants firmly and not rationalizing commitments to God or man
• teach and rejoice in the words of Christ in your home so that you desire to apply the Atonement in your life
• identify temptations that easily beset you and put them way out of reach

Along with doing these things daily and with exactness, we also must frequently biopsy our spiritually changed hearts and reverse any signs of rejection. This can be done by humbly and sincerely answering questions such as are found in Alma chapter 5, verses 14-30. Here are a few of those questions:

If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

Have ye been sufficiently humble?

Are ye stripped of pride?

Becoming casual with these seemingly small actions is a spiritual death trap. Eternal salvation and exaltation are at stake.

This talk was exactly what I needed to hear at this time because I hadn't been taking all of my medication so to say. I was so grateful for this powerful reminder of what is at stake if I am not maintaining the new spiritual heart that I have been given. The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. The challenge, for me, comes in living it daily and with exactness. Because of this talk I have a put a renewed focus on taking ALL of my medication! I had been leaving out prayer and scripture study too frequently. It shouldn't be left out at all! I have committed to do better because it is so important to me to keep my spiritual heart softened to the influence of the Holy Spirit. I do not want to risk the hardening of my heart and the resulting spiritual death. I am so thankful for this reminder.

Taking His Yoke

In my living room I have this beautiful painting of the Savior by Simon Dewey.
Underneath the picture is this scripture:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

If you've ever wondered what a "yoke" is, here's a picture:

It's used by oxen to carry a load. With two strong oxen yoked together, they are able to carry a heavy load together. Imagine how difficult that same load would be to pull if there were only one ox working to pull it.

So it is in life. One can carry a load all on his own, or come unto Christ and take His yoke upon him. When I feel like my load is NOT easy and my burden is NOT light, I take some time to ask myself sincerely: "Am I yoked with Christ?" Next comes the necessary course corrections (repentance) that brings me back to Him, under His yoke. I appreciate that my burden is not taken away from me. I am not absolved of the burdens of life by coming unto Christ, rather I am helped in pulling the weight that I am given to bear. And with Him, my burdens are lighter and I can bear them with ease, submitting "cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." (Mosiah 24:15)

I do my best to remember the Savior's Atonement. I remember that He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane so that when I repent of my sins and come unto Him that I do not have to suffer the full weight of my sins. I know He did this because He loves me. I choose to show my love to Him in return by yoking myself to Him and by being willing to humbly, willingly accept the will of the Lord in my life.

I Seek After Charity

The reason I am on this earth is so that I can learn to become like my Father in Heaven. My elder brother, Jesus Christ, is the perfect exemplar I can look to and follow. In the scriptures it is said that charity, the pure love of Christ, is the greatest gift to seek after; that "if ye have not charity, ye are nothing." (Moroni 7:44, 46) To me, charity means truly caring more about serving others than serving one's self. Having charity means to serve God with all of the heart, might, mind and strength, and with no ulterior motives. Being charitable is seeing everyone, ourselves included, as children of God and treating them as such. Serving with charity means seeking the inspiration of the Lord so as to be an instrument in His hands in bringing love, peace and comfort to a heart in need. A charitable person is focused on Love.

The antithesis of charity, I believe, is selfishness and victimization. It is when one is more concerned with getting as much as possible for as little effort, time or money as possible. It is only caring about personal wants and how to satisfy personal "needs" with little or no regard as to how one's actions may affect someone else. It is ignoring personal accountability in any given situation and believing that someone else is always to blame and someone else should fix the problem. An uncharitable person is focused on themselves.

These two dualities are the end result of what individual, daily choices lead to. They are a state of being, not who we are. I believe we are children of God, all equal in His sight. It is through our own choices in life that we end up at one end or the other. Change is a choice away. One of the greatest gifts we have been given is agency. We "are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil." (2 Nephi 2:27) The way we view the world, our belief system, governs our actions. If we want to make a change in our actions, first, we must be willing to change the way we believe.

I believe we are all in a great moment in the eternities with the opportunity to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Savior. I believe that He will come again. And I believe that He will come among those who live as He did. I want to be among that group. My intent in my life is to become like my Heavenly Father. The way to become as He is, is to seek after charity.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren (and sisters), if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail - but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whosoever is possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren (and sisters), pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons (and daughters) of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7:46-48)