"And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world."
3 Nephi 27:16
The word that stood out to me as I was reading this today was "filled." If we repent and are baptized in Christ's name, we will be filled. Filled with what? Doesn't say... but we can probably guess, from the similarity to other scriptures, with the Holy Ghost, with the spirit, with knowledge, power... so many things. I love the idea of being filled. And it kind of says something about our lives without God as well... that there is at least some emptiness there. A space where God should be. I think we feel that sometimes, maybe even before we know what it is, and we try to fill it in a lot of ways. Some with alcohol or drugs, some with love or sex, some with food or philosophy, or really anything at all, just trying to make it go away, and feel whole. But what it takes a while for us to realize is that this emptiness can't be filled in any of those ways. We might blank out our perception of it for a time with other things, yes, but the only thing that can make us whole is God. Everything else is a band-aid over a mortal wound. Only God can really heal that hurt, and fill our emptiness. ... And the cool thing about God is that when he fills it, he fills us to overflowing. We are so much more whole than we have ever been, and we have extra to share with others. Extra love, extra patience, extra kindness and gentleness... extra good. Today, let's work on making sure God is in our lives, filling us up and helping us to become so much more than we are, or that we ever could be without him.
3 Nephi 27:16
The word that stood out to me as I was reading this today was "filled." If we repent and are baptized in Christ's name, we will be filled. Filled with what? Doesn't say... but we can probably guess, from the similarity to other scriptures, with the Holy Ghost, with the spirit, with knowledge, power... so many things. I love the idea of being filled. And it kind of says something about our lives without God as well... that there is at least some emptiness there. A space where God should be. I think we feel that sometimes, maybe even before we know what it is, and we try to fill it in a lot of ways. Some with alcohol or drugs, some with love or sex, some with food or philosophy, or really anything at all, just trying to make it go away, and feel whole. But what it takes a while for us to realize is that this emptiness can't be filled in any of those ways. We might blank out our perception of it for a time with other things, yes, but the only thing that can make us whole is God. Everything else is a band-aid over a mortal wound. Only God can really heal that hurt, and fill our emptiness. ... And the cool thing about God is that when he fills it, he fills us to overflowing. We are so much more whole than we have ever been, and we have extra to share with others. Extra love, extra patience, extra kindness and gentleness... extra good. Today, let's work on making sure God is in our lives, filling us up and helping us to become so much more than we are, or that we ever could be without him.
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