Saturday, July 19, 2014

Alma 5:19-21 -- On Being Clean

"I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?
I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil?
I say unto you, ye will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; for there can no man be saved except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins."
Alma 5:19-21


It's probably instructive to imagine judgement day like this... it reminds us that we need to take our relationship with God seriously, repent of the sins that we have committed, and make the decisions to keep ourselves as clean as possible in the future.  I think in our lives we often shove all of that to the back of our minds thinking that we can deal with it later.  Except, we can't... not if we want to grow and become better.  We can't improve and build on an unstable foundation... and a relationship with God that is full of impediments and guilt and avoidance doesn't give us anything stable to build on.  We have to clean up our souls so that we can hold more light, and get "brighter and brighter until the perfect day" (D&C 50:24).  We can all be saved, but we have to actually think about it... work through it, and find out how to change, and how to accept Christ's atonement in our lives.  Today, let's remember to deal with the stains on our souls and the obstacles to our salvation.  Let's try to push through our natural desire to avoid or procrastinate, and let's go to God, talk about it, and work out anything that is separating us.  Let's do what it takes so that when that day comes, we *can* look up with a pure heart and clean hands.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Total Pageviews