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When We Try To Cover Our Sins And Gratify Our Pride We Lose Power September 18, 2012 |
When We Try To Cover Our Sins And Gratify Our Pride We Lose Power“That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the Priesthood or the authority of that man.” (D&C 121:37; The Constitution Of The Priesthood)
Gratify Our PrideGratify is a keyword that means to delight, appease, fulfill, give pleasure, cater to, fulfill. We often feed our pride when we should starve it. We starve it by thinking about others. Cover Our SinsCover is to hide. Why do we hide our sins? What are the consequences? I don’t claim to have the best answer, but I have an answer. One reason might be is because we want to think that we are strong and not weak. The law of sacrifice is ancient, but Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament version of sacrifice. Now the law of sacrifice is to have a broken heart and contrite spirit. At least part of the meaning to have a broken heart and contrite spirit is to recognize your sins and weaknesses and not be ashamed by them. It doesn’t mean you need to air your dirty laundry out to the world. If you are ashamed by them, you will hide them. Accept that you and others are human, and that perfection in the ultimate sense is not possible in this life and is not what God expects. The great prophets who stood in God’s presence and who were given godlike powers had sins and weaknesses. Their sins would have been tiny ones, the kind of sins that Elder Oaks says are washed out in the wash, I love that metaphor. The purpose of life is to have weaknesses, so that we are forced to rely on God. Sins are a different story. God has the least degree of allowance for sins, but He knows we will sin because we are human. Learning how to resist temptation is one of the greatest skills we can learn in this life. There is no benefit to sin. Sin does not give you experience, and you are never better off by it. Sin always pushes you back and never helps you grow. Repentance will get you back on track. The time it takes to repent takes on a big long loop to the straight line to God where you would have been had you resisted the temptation.
Chapel Address and contact information: 7155 S 540 E Midvale, UT 84047; 801-562-8089. You can also call 801-259-6709 for the mission home in Midvale if you live in the area and want two young men or women to visit you. |
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