"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned."
Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-29
You know, sometimes I think we have this whole God thing upside down. We want him to solve our problems for us, and we want him to take away the pain, and we want him to snap his fingers and give us a billion bucks and a private island. But the whole purpose of this life is to learn for ourselves, and if he does everything for us, then we learn nothing, except how to ask for and accept handouts.
This is not to say that we are on our own. We aren't, at all. God asks us to look unto him in every thought (D&C 6:36), and we are taught that "the words of Christ will tell you all things what you should do" (2 Nephi 32:3). Things that we can't handle alone, God will help us with, and he *always* wants us to talk it over with him... hence the pray always idea. But it is like our earthly parents. They want us to learn, and grow, and become independent. They don't want to be feeding us mashed bananas and changing our diapers when we're 45. Our teachers don't want us to come to class and expect to be spoon fed facts to regurgitate on tests. It would be much more fun, for them and for us, if we would engage with the subject, ask questions, see the possibilities, and start figuring it out on our own. So it is with God. We're here to learn and to grow, and yet we stop in the middle of learning to walk and essentially say to the Lord, "Wait, before I go any further, what's in it for me?"
Today, let's stop doubting and lollygagging. :) Let's do some research in the scriptures to find the answers to our questions instead of expecting to be told. Let's try it God's way instead of balking before we start. God will still always be there for us, but let's learn to jump in and do good without waiting for a prompting, so we can learn more and be more.
For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned."
Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-29
You know, sometimes I think we have this whole God thing upside down. We want him to solve our problems for us, and we want him to take away the pain, and we want him to snap his fingers and give us a billion bucks and a private island. But the whole purpose of this life is to learn for ourselves, and if he does everything for us, then we learn nothing, except how to ask for and accept handouts.
This is not to say that we are on our own. We aren't, at all. God asks us to look unto him in every thought (D&C 6:36), and we are taught that "the words of Christ will tell you all things what you should do" (2 Nephi 32:3). Things that we can't handle alone, God will help us with, and he *always* wants us to talk it over with him... hence the pray always idea. But it is like our earthly parents. They want us to learn, and grow, and become independent. They don't want to be feeding us mashed bananas and changing our diapers when we're 45. Our teachers don't want us to come to class and expect to be spoon fed facts to regurgitate on tests. It would be much more fun, for them and for us, if we would engage with the subject, ask questions, see the possibilities, and start figuring it out on our own. So it is with God. We're here to learn and to grow, and yet we stop in the middle of learning to walk and essentially say to the Lord, "Wait, before I go any further, what's in it for me?"
Today, let's stop doubting and lollygagging. :) Let's do some research in the scriptures to find the answers to our questions instead of expecting to be told. Let's try it God's way instead of balking before we start. God will still always be there for us, but let's learn to jump in and do good without waiting for a prompting, so we can learn more and be more.
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