"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."
2 Nephi 32:9
This is cool, and I think it really shows us how much more we could be dedicating our lives to the Lord. It is easy to get into a separation of spiritual and "normal" life. We pray at home or at church, and then the rest of the time, we kind of shift all of that to the back of our minds... trying to remember and get that feeling back again later. In this verse though, God is showing us that we never have to lose that feeling. This is how we keep him with us always... by always talking to him. By having him be the first one we go to about everything. The first one that pops into our mind to talk to about whatever it is during our days.
Can you imagine the difference in our lives if we actually did this? Prayed about *everything* that we did... dedicated our entire lives to the Lord with this level of detail? ... It would be amazing, and we would be better people. Maybe we can't get there overnight, but we can start. Let's take prayer more seriously today. Let's think of prayer before we talk it through with other people. Let's include God in everything we do today... and see if our days are more or less amazing than usual. :) I'm predicting more.
2 Nephi 32:9
This is cool, and I think it really shows us how much more we could be dedicating our lives to the Lord. It is easy to get into a separation of spiritual and "normal" life. We pray at home or at church, and then the rest of the time, we kind of shift all of that to the back of our minds... trying to remember and get that feeling back again later. In this verse though, God is showing us that we never have to lose that feeling. This is how we keep him with us always... by always talking to him. By having him be the first one we go to about everything. The first one that pops into our mind to talk to about whatever it is during our days.
Can you imagine the difference in our lives if we actually did this? Prayed about *everything* that we did... dedicated our entire lives to the Lord with this level of detail? ... It would be amazing, and we would be better people. Maybe we can't get there overnight, but we can start. Let's take prayer more seriously today. Let's think of prayer before we talk it through with other people. Let's include God in everything we do today... and see if our days are more or less amazing than usual. :) I'm predicting more.
Ive always wondered about 2n32:9: because of the word performance: lam still not sur l get the iimplications: l mean what if your not at your best behavior, do we keep praying: l guess so: thats why this scrip is so compelling: Also consecrate: what does this scrip really mean?
ReplyDeleteGood points. Maybe it means that we need to live with purpose. Doing things unto the Lord is very different than just doing them, because it changes the way we do them, and the way we think about them. I think that's the "perform" idea... a performance rather than an action, because we are awake and paying attention, and we're not just half-asleep on autopilot. And if we do things with that kind of intention, and attention to God, then it matters more... it works towards our salvation, rather than just being another day where we went through the motions.
ReplyDelete^ Great insight, Suzanne
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