"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!
Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!
Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost!
Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more!
And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall."
2 Nephi 28:24-28
Some of the verses right before this warn us about some of the traps of the devil. Three specific tactics are mentioned: rage, pacification, and flattery. Either he entices us to be angry at the truth, or pacifies us and tells us that everything is okay, nothing is wrong, or he tells us that actually there is no devil or hell... some people are just deluded or paranoid, but we're smart enough to know better. :) These verses take us back through some of those things. We can't be at ease, or think that everything is okay. We can't pretend that God and Satan don't exist, and that we are the smartest people in the room. We can't think that God is done, we've already achieved a Zion society, we're finished growing and learning, and now we can all just relax. And we can't be angry when confronted with the truth... that's Satan, telling us the truth is hateful and how could God allow that, and he must be wrong, and we're right, and all of it. In actuality, the truth is just the truth. God doesn't sit there trying to decide what to declare as truth... it just *is* ... and it doesn't change. It doesn't respond to peer pressure or societal norms. And God is truth. He exists. We can get angry all day at the truth because we don't like it, or we wish the world worked differently, or anything else contrary to fact, and it wouldn't affect anything. We can't sway the truth or convince it to become false.
Al of these things are tempting to think. Sometimes what we want isn't what God wants. Sometimes we don't want the truth to be the truth. We wish it would change or become more flexible. We always want to believe that we are smarter than other people. :) It would be awesome if we could just kick back and be merry instead of having to work and continue to learn and grow. That stuff is hard. But, as it tells us in the last verse of the selection here, the difference is in us. God remains the same, but whether or not we accept him and join him in his work is whether we're building on solid ground or not. God is our solid ground. And unless we build ourselves with Him as a foundation, we'll never be solid enough to withstand the pressure. It reminds me of The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. When the people from Hell take a bus trip to visit Heaven, they find that they aren't solid enough even to walk on the grass... it harms them rather than yielding to the pressure of their feet.
Today, let's build ourselves on the foundation of God. Let's trust in that strength and rejoice in that clarity and truth. Let's not believe the lies of Satan, or allow ourselves to become angry with reality. No matter how bad things seem now, in the end the solid ground will save us while everything else falls apart.
Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!
Yea, wo be unto him that hearkeneth unto the precepts of men, and denieth the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost!
Yea, wo be unto him that saith: We have received, and we need no more!
And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall."
2 Nephi 28:24-28
Some of the verses right before this warn us about some of the traps of the devil. Three specific tactics are mentioned: rage, pacification, and flattery. Either he entices us to be angry at the truth, or pacifies us and tells us that everything is okay, nothing is wrong, or he tells us that actually there is no devil or hell... some people are just deluded or paranoid, but we're smart enough to know better. :) These verses take us back through some of those things. We can't be at ease, or think that everything is okay. We can't pretend that God and Satan don't exist, and that we are the smartest people in the room. We can't think that God is done, we've already achieved a Zion society, we're finished growing and learning, and now we can all just relax. And we can't be angry when confronted with the truth... that's Satan, telling us the truth is hateful and how could God allow that, and he must be wrong, and we're right, and all of it. In actuality, the truth is just the truth. God doesn't sit there trying to decide what to declare as truth... it just *is* ... and it doesn't change. It doesn't respond to peer pressure or societal norms. And God is truth. He exists. We can get angry all day at the truth because we don't like it, or we wish the world worked differently, or anything else contrary to fact, and it wouldn't affect anything. We can't sway the truth or convince it to become false.
Al of these things are tempting to think. Sometimes what we want isn't what God wants. Sometimes we don't want the truth to be the truth. We wish it would change or become more flexible. We always want to believe that we are smarter than other people. :) It would be awesome if we could just kick back and be merry instead of having to work and continue to learn and grow. That stuff is hard. But, as it tells us in the last verse of the selection here, the difference is in us. God remains the same, but whether or not we accept him and join him in his work is whether we're building on solid ground or not. God is our solid ground. And unless we build ourselves with Him as a foundation, we'll never be solid enough to withstand the pressure. It reminds me of The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. When the people from Hell take a bus trip to visit Heaven, they find that they aren't solid enough even to walk on the grass... it harms them rather than yielding to the pressure of their feet.
Today, let's build ourselves on the foundation of God. Let's trust in that strength and rejoice in that clarity and truth. Let's not believe the lies of Satan, or allow ourselves to become angry with reality. No matter how bad things seem now, in the end the solid ground will save us while everything else falls apart.
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