At breakfast with his generals on the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte said, "I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime."
Do you ever get the idea that your best thinking may have been in error? . . . And that positive thinking and past achievements can only take you so far, perhaps to the battlefield but not necessarily to the victory?
When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ we are nearly always in error unless we get a revelation from Him through His Spirit, "For my ways are not your ways, neither are your thoughts my thoughts."
The Prophet Joseph asked, "Who knows the mind of God? Does He not reveal things differently from what we expect?" (Teachings, page 224). All of this is a clear indication of the vast gulf between man in his natural, fallen state --- you and me --- and our God. As the Lord once said to Joseph, "Behold, thou art Joseph, and I am God." Rodney Turner observed that distances always seem greater from above, looking down. . . . We have good reason to be humble, and if we can, teachable as well.
In a brilliant discourse found in Alma chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon, the great high priest Alma asks some forty-eight questions by way of instruction to the people of Zarahemla. One of his first questions is whether the people have sufficiently retained in remembrance the Lord's mercy and long-suffering toward their ancestors, and that He had delivered their souls from hell. Alma goes on to explain how the Lord did this for their ancestors, "Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word." This awakening began through the bold and courageous words of a holy prophet, Abinadi, who was put to death for his trouble.
Notice with care, it was the Lord who changed their hearts, through the preaching of the word of God. Indeed there is more power in the word of God to change hearts and minds and lives than in any other thing known to man (see Alma 31:5).
Do you believe this?
It is not the common lot of mankind --- or of Churchkind --- to give place for the word of God in the sense of seeking it and yearning to be taught and changed by it.
Helaman, grandson of the high priest and prophet Alma just cited, spoke of the joy of his people in their consolation and sanctification, which came "because of their yielding their hearts unto God" (Helaman 3:35).
The angel who told king Benjamin to "Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee . . . glad tidings of great joy" (Mosiah 3:3) was likely Abinadi himself, who was martyred a generation earlier, as mentioned above. Abinadi also told the king: ". . . the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam [the Fall of Adam caused this condition among mankind] . . . unless he yields to [Him] . . . willing to submit" (3:19). These are key points of doctrine, and they rarely are welcomed by natural man in his fallen state; but they reflect good religion.
Let's give the final word to C.S.Lewis on how vital this yielding is, and how it is to be done:
"Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, or so much of your money, or so much of your work, I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want the tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, I want it out. Hand over your whole natural self, all the desires, the ones that you think are innocent as well as the ones that you think are wicked. You give me the whole outfit, and I will give you a new self. In fact, I will give you myself, and my will shall become your will.
"The terrible thing, of course, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self, all your wishes, and all your precautions to Christ. But that is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do instead is remain what we call 'ourselves', to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time to be reasonably good. We're all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way, centered on money, or pleasure, or ambition, and hoping in spite of this to behave honestly and humbly, and that is exactly what Christ warned us that we could not do. He said a thistle cannot produce figs. If I'm a field that contains nothing but grass seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short, but I shall still produce grass and never wheat. If I want to produce wheat the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and resown. It's the difference between paint which is simply on the surface and a dye or a stain that soaks right through. He never talked vaguely. He said, 'Be perfect,' and He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. See, I have chosen you; you haven't chosen me. You come to this on MY terms, and I want for you the full treatment.
"Now that's hard. But the sort of compromise we're hankering after is harder still; in fact, it's impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird, but it's a jolly sight harder for an egg to learn to fly. We are like eggs at present, and you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. Someday you have to be hatched or go bad. . . . It is hard for an egg to become a bird, but it is impossible for an egg to learn to fly" (Mere Christianity, pp 163--65).
As we elaborated elsewhere, being born again involves labor pains. It starts with a broken heart and a contrite spirit --- a soul who is willing, even eager, to be taught, to be changed, to be saved. Submit . . . yield . . . are key words here.
Elder Packer: "A desire to learn is one thing. An expressed willingness to be taught and to be corrected is quite another. . . . Many will say they want to learn but feel threatened if there is the slightest element of correction in what they are given." Do you see how defensive natural man is, and how protective of his fallen state he is? Irony of ironies!! Being humble --- even willing to be humiliated, if necessary --- is essential.
Steve
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This is so true. Why it is so difficult to give my whole to God I do not quite understand. If we did so. life would be so much easier.. it is as if we are addicted to the evil within and can not let go... but if we invited Christ in-- it could be done.
ReplyDeleteI think we are afraid that if we let go, give our whole selves we will loose ourselves.. and to a degree we will.. but it will be a good loss and one that will transform us to the bird that can fly.