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Why Do Your Desires Dictate Your Priorities?"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming." Desires + priorities+ choices+ actions= changing, achieving and becoming. In my opinion the two most important ingredients in this equation are desires and actions. As critical as desires are, ultimately it doesn't matter until you take action. Taking action can be incredibly difficult. It all starts with desire which is the fuel that ignites the action. Desires Dictate Our PrioritiesWhat are your greatest desires? Are they what they should be? Righteous desires need to be educated through the word of God. It is not easy to only want what God wants for a couple of reasons. Pride is putting our wills before God's. His thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts. And He works in mysterious ways that can seem confusing especially when we don't receive something that we think is right. Our Choices Determine Our ActionsOur actions are the final step to our changing, achieving and becoming. According to Elder Maxwell teaches that discipleship is doing the word of God. The purpose of the gospel is to help you change. Change is the purpose of repentance. Acquiring the grace of God will help you tremendously in taking action; in fact it is mandatory if you want to accomplish great things. The prophets said without God you can do nothing. Even Christ didn't have the fullness at first but grew from grace by grace. Your power to act is contingent on acquiring the grace of God. Personal righteousness is a major way in which you receive the grace of God. Personal righteousness is what you do on an hourly basis. Your heavenly reward is being determined by what you are doing this very second. The Obstacles To ActingDespair, fear, doubt and discouragement are among many of the things that prevent us from taking action. Fear is one of the biggest roadblocks to acting. Fear is not part of the gospel and comes from Satan. Satan has a vested interest in preventing you from taking action because wants to keep you stuck where you are. He knows you are happier when you are progressing and achieving in life and miserable when you feel chained down and not progressing. The Holy Ghost is the force that prompts you to act; and it is the still small voice. It is very sensitive and offended by sin. The scriptures say God has the least degree of allowance for sin and does not dwell in filthiness. You feel the love of God through the Holy Ghost, which there is nothing greater in this life than to feel God's love. When you feel God's love it melts away pain and heartache. Feeling the love of God through the Holy Ghost is the greatest healer. A hard heart makes it difficult to act. |