"Say unto the righteous that it is well with them; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Wo unto the wicked, for they shall perish; for the reward of their hands shall be upon them!"
2 Nephi 13:10-11
I like the contrast of these two verses because it seems like the same thing happens to each group. The righteous eat the fruit of their doings, and receive the reward of their own hands, and the same happens to the wicked. In one case it's a sad thing and in the other a happy thing, but the difference here isn't about the way that God thinks about them, the way that others treat them, or about any external influence. It is that they... we... are rewarded according to our own actions.
Of course external things influence us to one degree or another, and I'm not saying that God won't take those things into account. Just that it is clear that the choices that we do have and make dictate our future state. This makes a lot of sense as we look at our lives now. They are the direct result of choices that we have made.
We sometimes get it into our head that we just have to push through this life, make a big one-time effort, and then God will shower us with everything good, and we can relax on clouds for eternity. And hey, there could be some relaxing on clouds involved. I don't know. I think though that if we just treat life as though we were cramming for a test and assume that we won't need the information and skills that we gain later, we might be in for a shock--similar to the time in college when I found out that math was actually pertinent to real life. :)
God isn't just making us jump through hoops in life. He's actually teaching us how to have a joyous eternity. Everything that we encounter in life is designed to help that happen. Today, let's make sure that our actions are things that we want rewarded to us in the future. Let's make sure that we are understanding, retaining, and even learning to appreciate what God is teaching us rather than just cramming it into short-term memory. It isn't just going to be on the test. It will be a part of our existence for a very long time.
Wo unto the wicked, for they shall perish; for the reward of their hands shall be upon them!"
2 Nephi 13:10-11
I like the contrast of these two verses because it seems like the same thing happens to each group. The righteous eat the fruit of their doings, and receive the reward of their own hands, and the same happens to the wicked. In one case it's a sad thing and in the other a happy thing, but the difference here isn't about the way that God thinks about them, the way that others treat them, or about any external influence. It is that they... we... are rewarded according to our own actions.
Of course external things influence us to one degree or another, and I'm not saying that God won't take those things into account. Just that it is clear that the choices that we do have and make dictate our future state. This makes a lot of sense as we look at our lives now. They are the direct result of choices that we have made.
We sometimes get it into our head that we just have to push through this life, make a big one-time effort, and then God will shower us with everything good, and we can relax on clouds for eternity. And hey, there could be some relaxing on clouds involved. I don't know. I think though that if we just treat life as though we were cramming for a test and assume that we won't need the information and skills that we gain later, we might be in for a shock--similar to the time in college when I found out that math was actually pertinent to real life. :)
God isn't just making us jump through hoops in life. He's actually teaching us how to have a joyous eternity. Everything that we encounter in life is designed to help that happen. Today, let's make sure that our actions are things that we want rewarded to us in the future. Let's make sure that we are understanding, retaining, and even learning to appreciate what God is teaching us rather than just cramming it into short-term memory. It isn't just going to be on the test. It will be a part of our existence for a very long time.
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