Dear Elders and Sisters,
As I thought about each of you yesterday while traveling home from Tyumen and then again early this morning, when I was able to look at each of your photographs and think about you individually, I felt impressed to express the following thoughts regarding the direction and guidance the Lord has given us specifically for this mission.
I will continue to emphasize and you will continue to hear throughout your mission that you must become a submissive, consecrated missionary in order to receive the divine help that is essential to experiencing success in this mission. And I will continue to remind you that the pathway to consecration begins with exact obedience to the sacred covenants you made in the temple and exact obedience to the guidelines, standards and directions contained in the Missionary Handbook and Preach My Gospel. You simply cannot become a consecrated missionary if you are not striving to be obedient to these missionary standards and striving to keep your covenants, with exactness.
Unfortunately, these last two words "with exactness" create a stumbling block to those who desire a certain range of freedom in determining how their obedience more comfortably matches their unique personalities, situations or perspectives. In fact, some children of God who have made sacred covenants argue, while serving as full time missionaries, that the expectation of strict or exact obedience creates robot missionaries who are so concerned about rules that they lose the freedom and joy of making personal decisions. I do not want rule-based robotic obedience in this mission.In fact, I have consistently taught that obedience should flow from our hearts because of our sincere love for our Father in Heaven and our desire to be submissive to Him.
I want you to understand that "obedience with exactness" is not about being focused on rules and struggling to obey them. It is all about being submissive to our Father in Heaven. The Lord has consistently instructed his children that He expects exact obedience or "obedience with exactness"as evidence of their submitting their hearts to Him. For example, through the prophet Samuel, the Lord gave a clear commandment to King Saul to "… Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have." But Saul practiced "selective obedience," and relying on his own wisdom, spared the life of King Agag and brought back the best of the sheep, oxen, and other animals. The Lordconsequently removed Saul from being king. Saul excused himself by blaming others, saying the people had kept the animals in order to make sacrifices to the Lord. The Lord's answer through his prophet was clear: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken [to the commandments of the Lord] than the fat of rams." Because Saul did not hearken with exactness—because he chose to be selectively obedient—he lost the opportunity and the agency to be king.
I love Helaman's report of the 2,000 young sons of the Ammonites who volunteered to help the Nephites against the invasion of the Lamanites. When the Nephite army was threatened with overwhelming odds by the Lamanites, Helaman said to these men, "What say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle?" And they answered, "Behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth. …
Helaman noted that "they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." After they had defeated the Lamanites in a terrible battle, Helaman reported: "behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, … [and] to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; … never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength."
Following a later battle, Helaman continued in his report: "My little band … [was] firm before the Lamanites, … and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them. … "And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God." Why? "Because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power." Helaman noted: "Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually." Helaman explained that their firm minds and great faith came because "they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them."
Being obedient with exactness is not binding, restricting or limiting. In fact, it has the opposite effect. When we submit our will to God by obeying with exactness, we become free from the limitations and restrictions of this world and enter the realm of great faith and spiritual power that only God can bestow upon us. The prophets have consistently taught that faith requires an attitude of exact obedience, which is the act of submissiveness that allows us to know that God is pleased with us and that we have His promise to us individually, by name.
Joseph Smith taught that in offering whatever sacrifice God may require of us, with exactness, we obtain the witness of the Spirit that our course is right and pleasing to God (see Lectures on Faith, 69–71) and with that knowledge, our faith becomes unbounded, having the assurance that God will in due time turn every affliction to our gain. He observed that God will never "institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of His law and ordinances" (History of the Church, 5:135).
Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that "those who give themselves freely and unreservedly to the covenant life, find greater liberty and fulfillment. When we truly understand, we seek more commandments, not fewer. Each new law or commandment we learn and live is like one more rung or step on a ladder that enables us to climb higher and higher. Truly, the gospel life is the good life."
Elders and Sisters, I pray that you will each find the "good life" of missionary work and experience mighty miracles because you submit your will to your Father in Heaven by striving to be obedient with exactness, holding nothing back from Him. Please strive, like the stripling warriors, to "obey and observe to perform every word of [instruction] with exactness." Submissiveness, which is the foundation of consecration, is based on humility, meekness and love for our Heavenly Father and His Son and being willing to submit to all things, being willing to be obedient with exactness to all of His commandments.
I plead with you to understand and accept that truth that being strictly obedient or being obedient with exactness to the standards in the Missionary Handbook, Preach My Gospel and the counsel I give you as your mission president are opportunities to demonstrate your love for your Father in Heaven by being willing to fully submit your will to Him. I promise that you will not become a robot, but, like the stripling warriors, will actually be liberated from perils, limitations and restrictions in this temporal world. You will acquire greater confidence and faith. You will be filled with greater love. You will have divine protection and guidance. You will experience greater joy, and you will experience many miracles.
And that, my beloved Elders and Sisters, is the good life!
With love,
President Christensen
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment