Jacob 4:7-14
Unfortunately, I've been SO busy tonight, SO busy this whole week, that I'm very limited in what I have time to write, but I have SO much to say because I've been thinking about these topics, the question I asked last night, "how are we benefitted by recognizing and relying on God?" and then the rest of chapter 4, because as usual the Lord goes above and beyond to teach me, and the Ensign articles that I've been listening to in the car have fit perfectly with these verses.
First off, to lump the rest of the chapter together because I really don't have time to go into splitting them up, etc. There are a few points that Jacob brings up that go together and with what I've learned recently.
First point is that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, he is all powerful, Jacob asks "if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?" I heard an Ensign article yesterday and it immediately became my favorite article of all time, this has been the logical side of my testimony for many many years, I just had never heard it until yesterday, it's called "Worlds Without Number" by R. Val Johnson. In it he teaches "The God we worship is more powerful than we can comprehend. The Father, through His Son, not only created the heavens and the earth but also is the power that sustains those creations." Like Jacob, Brother Johnson wants us to understand the power that God has but also brings an interesting point about why that knowledge isn't always at the forefront of our operation mind. "Perhaps because the concept of father is easy to grasp, or perhaps because the idea that we are the offspring of God is so empowering, we sometimes tend to focus on that personal relationship and forget that our Heavenly Father, through His Son, is also the Creator and Ruler of the universe." One of the reasons that we must be reminded time and time again that God is omnipotent is because we are wary to believe it, surely we know that the Almighty God created all, and we can even recognize that we have a personal connection with Him, but it must be that we don't believe that our suffering is part of his controlled plan for our lives. I used to think, as a child, crying out of loneliness or frustration that God truly didn't care, that he "loved" me, but was tired of me acting like such a baby. I should have realized then that in my heartbreak, he wept too, that his plan was to take me through the atonement mold me to become the person that he wants me to be, and surely at the time I didn't think that any of that was part of his plan. I felt like the world was out of control, and in a way it is, but what I don't think enough people realize is that, yes there's craziness out there, but we spiritually live in a highly controlled world. Satan must operate within the bounds set by God, we are constantly protected from and exposed to hardship, heartbreak, violence, accidents, death, destruction, favor, progress, and done so in a manner that can only be described as miraculous. I was meant to experience my life, my trials, my hardships so that I could humble myself and as Jacob says in verse 7, see my weakness and recognize his power and glory in all things. There are many times that I can see the hand of the Lord working in my life in the most unexpected ways, when I didn't deserve it. If we were able to take the understanding that God has power over EVERYTHING, and truly plant it into our hearts, and let that belief take root and be at the forefront of our minds as we go through daily life, it would make a world of difference in our understanding and our anxiety. But it's not enough to just truly believe that God has all power, the second part of faith is knowing that he uses it only to benefit us, both as rewards and consequences, trials and triumphs. At the end of the article, there is a quote by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf saying "this is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation-worlds without end- within our grasp. And it is God's great desire to help us reach it." The plan that God has for each of us, is as precise and perfectly attended to, as if we were the only beings in existence. It's hard for me to imagine that he has so many children, yet cares for each of us in such an in depth manner that many of us can't understand, we can't comprehend so we bury our head in the sand. God will wield his power to protect us from the mighty forces of nature, and at the same time, place stumbling blocks in our way and then help us turn them into stepping stones. He attends to us as if he's personally standing over our shoulder, watching, guiding, directing and loving us every moment of everyday for our entire lives. That is the most powerful knowledge of all, and if we could just imagine for a few minutes that God himself with his all knowledge and all power is standing right behind us both clearing and obstructing the way ONLY for our benefit, and ONLY as he has a plan and a hand to help us through it, every reward, every obstacle, every action, every consequence, everything in our lives has been meticulously planned and prepared for by him, that there won't be anything accidentally spilling onto our side of the road, no unexpected storms, then the light, life, peace, joy, and fulfillment that would fill our souls would be life changing.
Which leads into the second point, and my question from last night, "how are we benefitted by recognizing and relying on God?" I love verse 10, and truly think it came to me at just the right time "seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works." This is the point that many people logically understand but are unable to truly believe it and live in a manner that demonstrates it's importance. We know, but we won't believe. Why? Because it takes the power away from us, as humans we are so afraid to not be in control of our surroundings, we are so afraid that if we just chill out for 10 seconds, the whole world around us will collapse, but the ultimate irony here is that, we have absolutely no control over anything at all, and pretending we do drives us wild with anxiety. We can prepare, we can make informed decisions, but then ultimately, we just have to trust in the will of the Lord. If I leave my kids with a babysitter, I make sure that I choose a good one, give good instructions, but ultimately at the end of the day, the Lord can post Strippling Warriors outside my home to protect my children inside, no matter what happens, or he can allow my child to fall down and break his arm, but either way, it is his will and has prepared a way to for us to be benefitted from it. So really, by recognizing and relying on God, we save ourselves the drama of pretending that ultimately we are in charge of anything. It teaches us to be humble, which allows us to be accessible to the Holy Ghost for promptings and teachings. Arrogance hardens the heart and makes it impenetrable to the Spirit. Recognizing and relying on God also allows us to be open to his plan. As Jacob teaches, God counsels in wisdom, and justice, and great mercy, the plan he has for us is full of blessings and happiness that we can't even comprehend, why turn our backs on that plan simply because we don't know everything about it right at that moment. Being open to God and even actively seeking his counsel and guidance allows him to reveal his plan for us bit by bit, line by line, and step by step. If he gave us the mountain to climb and showed us a picture of the box of gold at the top all at once, we would never do it, we wouldn't know how, or we would think that it's too hard. But as the mountain is slowly revealed, and we are only asked to take the next step forward, that is more manageable, that is the Lord's way and I'm pretty sure that that is the only effective way to exaltation. I am going to spend this general conference weekend imaging God himself standing over my shoulder preparing the path for me to travel, but smooth and bumpy and trust that it is for my own benefit. I'm going to actively seek his guidance, and truly try to incorporate Jacob's teaching of being reconciled to God "through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son."
First off, to lump the rest of the chapter together because I really don't have time to go into splitting them up, etc. There are a few points that Jacob brings up that go together and with what I've learned recently.
First point is that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, he is all powerful, Jacob asks "if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?" I heard an Ensign article yesterday and it immediately became my favorite article of all time, this has been the logical side of my testimony for many many years, I just had never heard it until yesterday, it's called "Worlds Without Number" by R. Val Johnson. In it he teaches "The God we worship is more powerful than we can comprehend. The Father, through His Son, not only created the heavens and the earth but also is the power that sustains those creations." Like Jacob, Brother Johnson wants us to understand the power that God has but also brings an interesting point about why that knowledge isn't always at the forefront of our operation mind. "Perhaps because the concept of father is easy to grasp, or perhaps because the idea that we are the offspring of God is so empowering, we sometimes tend to focus on that personal relationship and forget that our Heavenly Father, through His Son, is also the Creator and Ruler of the universe." One of the reasons that we must be reminded time and time again that God is omnipotent is because we are wary to believe it, surely we know that the Almighty God created all, and we can even recognize that we have a personal connection with Him, but it must be that we don't believe that our suffering is part of his controlled plan for our lives. I used to think, as a child, crying out of loneliness or frustration that God truly didn't care, that he "loved" me, but was tired of me acting like such a baby. I should have realized then that in my heartbreak, he wept too, that his plan was to take me through the atonement mold me to become the person that he wants me to be, and surely at the time I didn't think that any of that was part of his plan. I felt like the world was out of control, and in a way it is, but what I don't think enough people realize is that, yes there's craziness out there, but we spiritually live in a highly controlled world. Satan must operate within the bounds set by God, we are constantly protected from and exposed to hardship, heartbreak, violence, accidents, death, destruction, favor, progress, and done so in a manner that can only be described as miraculous. I was meant to experience my life, my trials, my hardships so that I could humble myself and as Jacob says in verse 7, see my weakness and recognize his power and glory in all things. There are many times that I can see the hand of the Lord working in my life in the most unexpected ways, when I didn't deserve it. If we were able to take the understanding that God has power over EVERYTHING, and truly plant it into our hearts, and let that belief take root and be at the forefront of our minds as we go through daily life, it would make a world of difference in our understanding and our anxiety. But it's not enough to just truly believe that God has all power, the second part of faith is knowing that he uses it only to benefit us, both as rewards and consequences, trials and triumphs. At the end of the article, there is a quote by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf saying "this is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation-worlds without end- within our grasp. And it is God's great desire to help us reach it." The plan that God has for each of us, is as precise and perfectly attended to, as if we were the only beings in existence. It's hard for me to imagine that he has so many children, yet cares for each of us in such an in depth manner that many of us can't understand, we can't comprehend so we bury our head in the sand. God will wield his power to protect us from the mighty forces of nature, and at the same time, place stumbling blocks in our way and then help us turn them into stepping stones. He attends to us as if he's personally standing over our shoulder, watching, guiding, directing and loving us every moment of everyday for our entire lives. That is the most powerful knowledge of all, and if we could just imagine for a few minutes that God himself with his all knowledge and all power is standing right behind us both clearing and obstructing the way ONLY for our benefit, and ONLY as he has a plan and a hand to help us through it, every reward, every obstacle, every action, every consequence, everything in our lives has been meticulously planned and prepared for by him, that there won't be anything accidentally spilling onto our side of the road, no unexpected storms, then the light, life, peace, joy, and fulfillment that would fill our souls would be life changing.
Which leads into the second point, and my question from last night, "how are we benefitted by recognizing and relying on God?" I love verse 10, and truly think it came to me at just the right time "seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works." This is the point that many people logically understand but are unable to truly believe it and live in a manner that demonstrates it's importance. We know, but we won't believe. Why? Because it takes the power away from us, as humans we are so afraid to not be in control of our surroundings, we are so afraid that if we just chill out for 10 seconds, the whole world around us will collapse, but the ultimate irony here is that, we have absolutely no control over anything at all, and pretending we do drives us wild with anxiety. We can prepare, we can make informed decisions, but then ultimately, we just have to trust in the will of the Lord. If I leave my kids with a babysitter, I make sure that I choose a good one, give good instructions, but ultimately at the end of the day, the Lord can post Strippling Warriors outside my home to protect my children inside, no matter what happens, or he can allow my child to fall down and break his arm, but either way, it is his will and has prepared a way to for us to be benefitted from it. So really, by recognizing and relying on God, we save ourselves the drama of pretending that ultimately we are in charge of anything. It teaches us to be humble, which allows us to be accessible to the Holy Ghost for promptings and teachings. Arrogance hardens the heart and makes it impenetrable to the Spirit. Recognizing and relying on God also allows us to be open to his plan. As Jacob teaches, God counsels in wisdom, and justice, and great mercy, the plan he has for us is full of blessings and happiness that we can't even comprehend, why turn our backs on that plan simply because we don't know everything about it right at that moment. Being open to God and even actively seeking his counsel and guidance allows him to reveal his plan for us bit by bit, line by line, and step by step. If he gave us the mountain to climb and showed us a picture of the box of gold at the top all at once, we would never do it, we wouldn't know how, or we would think that it's too hard. But as the mountain is slowly revealed, and we are only asked to take the next step forward, that is more manageable, that is the Lord's way and I'm pretty sure that that is the only effective way to exaltation. I am going to spend this general conference weekend imaging God himself standing over my shoulder preparing the path for me to travel, but smooth and bumpy and trust that it is for my own benefit. I'm going to actively seek his guidance, and truly try to incorporate Jacob's teaching of being reconciled to God "through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son."
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