"And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.
For he will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith."
Doctrine and Covenants 98:11-12
Forsaking all evil and cleaving unto all good sort of seems abstract, like "be ye therefore perfect" (Matthew 5:48), but I like the fact that things that seem so light that they have little meaning (perhaps like our traditional "hi, how are you" greeting?) are not empty at all when they come from God. In fact, neither is his command to be perfect. The cool thing is that God asks these things AND makes them possible, line upon line, little by little, promising that what we think is impossible IS possible, eventually (see Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "Be Ye Therefore Perfect--Eventually"). So when God asks us to forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, he's also promising that it can be done. Sorting out what is good and evil is part of our task as we learn to become more like God and find our ways back to him, but it is made possible, and much easier, when we rely on "every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God. :)
God isn't expecting us to be perfect today, or even tomorrow... just that we are walking the path towards that perfection, little by little, gathering the good and discarding the bad, both from things that we encounter, and things that are within ourselves. Today, let's take a step in the right direction, learning and living by God's word and cleaving unto all the good that we can find. :)
For he will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith."
Doctrine and Covenants 98:11-12
Forsaking all evil and cleaving unto all good sort of seems abstract, like "be ye therefore perfect" (Matthew 5:48), but I like the fact that things that seem so light that they have little meaning (perhaps like our traditional "hi, how are you" greeting?) are not empty at all when they come from God. In fact, neither is his command to be perfect. The cool thing is that God asks these things AND makes them possible, line upon line, little by little, promising that what we think is impossible IS possible, eventually (see Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "Be Ye Therefore Perfect--Eventually"). So when God asks us to forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, he's also promising that it can be done. Sorting out what is good and evil is part of our task as we learn to become more like God and find our ways back to him, but it is made possible, and much easier, when we rely on "every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God. :)
God isn't expecting us to be perfect today, or even tomorrow... just that we are walking the path towards that perfection, little by little, gathering the good and discarding the bad, both from things that we encounter, and things that are within ourselves. Today, let's take a step in the right direction, learning and living by God's word and cleaving unto all the good that we can find. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment