"For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.
For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God."
Moroni 7:6-8
This is a good reminder for us that attitude matters. :) Sometimes we think that as long as we are taking the right *action* that it doesn't matter what we think or how we feel about it. As we see in this verse however, it absolutely matters to God.
I'm not saying that "fake it till you make it" can't work. Sometimes taking an action and learning the habit of obedience is an important first step, and we learn later the reasoning behind it and what it means for us personally and become emotionally invested in it. Likewise, we can start out with a desire to serve God and later catch up with that desire by bringing our actions in line with our beliefs. Those things are okay as temporary tactics, just not as long-term strategies. With God, we can't commit halfway. It's all or nothing, and we're either working towards all, or we're losing ground towards nothing. There is no neutrality.
It takes us a long time in life to learn who we are, what we really care about, and to "ripen" into who we will be... in scriptural terms good or bad fruit in the Lord's vineyard, or seeing whether we turn out as wheat or tares. God is giving us time to make choices and learn things. He's not condemning us for not understanding everything all at once, and he's not trying to punish us for having bad attitudes. :) He *is* warning us about the consequences of our actions... helping us know how to avoid being tares or goats or bitter fruit. And part of that is attitude. We can't go to church grumbling every week. Eventually, we have to learn to like it, or it doesn't do us a lot of good. Same with most things... God cares about the reasons that we do what we do, and wants to help us unify body and spirit... desire and action, so that we aren't warring within anymore, but are whole and focused and happy.
Today, let's do good things and give good gifts... and let's work on wanting to do the right things, and not just going through the motions.
For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.
For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God."
Moroni 7:6-8
This is a good reminder for us that attitude matters. :) Sometimes we think that as long as we are taking the right *action* that it doesn't matter what we think or how we feel about it. As we see in this verse however, it absolutely matters to God.
I'm not saying that "fake it till you make it" can't work. Sometimes taking an action and learning the habit of obedience is an important first step, and we learn later the reasoning behind it and what it means for us personally and become emotionally invested in it. Likewise, we can start out with a desire to serve God and later catch up with that desire by bringing our actions in line with our beliefs. Those things are okay as temporary tactics, just not as long-term strategies. With God, we can't commit halfway. It's all or nothing, and we're either working towards all, or we're losing ground towards nothing. There is no neutrality.
It takes us a long time in life to learn who we are, what we really care about, and to "ripen" into who we will be... in scriptural terms good or bad fruit in the Lord's vineyard, or seeing whether we turn out as wheat or tares. God is giving us time to make choices and learn things. He's not condemning us for not understanding everything all at once, and he's not trying to punish us for having bad attitudes. :) He *is* warning us about the consequences of our actions... helping us know how to avoid being tares or goats or bitter fruit. And part of that is attitude. We can't go to church grumbling every week. Eventually, we have to learn to like it, or it doesn't do us a lot of good. Same with most things... God cares about the reasons that we do what we do, and wants to help us unify body and spirit... desire and action, so that we aren't warring within anymore, but are whole and focused and happy.
Today, let's do good things and give good gifts... and let's work on wanting to do the right things, and not just going through the motions.
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