"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
Mosiah 3:19
We sometimes talk about people being inherently good or inherently evil, often argued as the difference between the perspectives of optimists and pessimists, or perhaps as the difference between good and evil people.
The truth is though that we are both, and many of the things that we find are part of ourselves need to be discarded or at least changed as we learn more and strive for inner peace. We can argue that any inclination is inborn... and we're probably right. But those are the inclinations of the mortal body which, as it says, "is an enemy to God." It's a given that sin is a natural part of our desires. The challenge is to let the ALSO inborn part of us that is naturally good win.
Mortality is a time of internal struggle as we learn self-mastery and what desires and parts of ourselves we are going to keep and which we are going to discard. We are often at war within ourselves and we are going to have to solve that struggle in some way, either by letting one side smother the other, or else, with God's help, finding a unity and balance, learning to find righteous ways to satisfy our body's needs while satisfying our spiritual desires as well.
Today, let's work to conquer our inherent division. Let's work with God to find balance and to make sure that we are feeding the spiritual side of ourselves, and not holding onto the bad side so much that we get stuck there, unable to let go or move forward. Let's find a way to not be enemies, with God OR with the internal parts of ourselves, but instead find God's way to wholeness and peace. :)
Mosiah 3:19
We sometimes talk about people being inherently good or inherently evil, often argued as the difference between the perspectives of optimists and pessimists, or perhaps as the difference between good and evil people.
The truth is though that we are both, and many of the things that we find are part of ourselves need to be discarded or at least changed as we learn more and strive for inner peace. We can argue that any inclination is inborn... and we're probably right. But those are the inclinations of the mortal body which, as it says, "is an enemy to God." It's a given that sin is a natural part of our desires. The challenge is to let the ALSO inborn part of us that is naturally good win.
Mortality is a time of internal struggle as we learn self-mastery and what desires and parts of ourselves we are going to keep and which we are going to discard. We are often at war within ourselves and we are going to have to solve that struggle in some way, either by letting one side smother the other, or else, with God's help, finding a unity and balance, learning to find righteous ways to satisfy our body's needs while satisfying our spiritual desires as well.
Today, let's work to conquer our inherent division. Let's work with God to find balance and to make sure that we are feeding the spiritual side of ourselves, and not holding onto the bad side so much that we get stuck there, unable to let go or move forward. Let's find a way to not be enemies, with God OR with the internal parts of ourselves, but instead find God's way to wholeness and peace. :)
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