3 Nephi 13:11-13
13:11 - I was having quite the crisis last night, and to be honest, today as well, it’s honestly been a mess, but I’m trying to work through it with Jesus. I think that this is one of those times when I need to learn that God’s will is better than my will, that these struggles aren’t meant to destroy but to strengthen. The Lord is so merciful to teach me lessons as I need to learn them and as I am able to understand them. As I was driving to work yesterday I listened to an article entitled “Heavenly Help for Our Mortal Journey,” by Bishop Dean M. Davies, in which he told of a Q&A session that he attended with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. While at the meeting, Elder Holland deferred a question to Bishop Davies which was “Does the Lord give us challenges that are intended to impede our progress?” That’s an excellent question, if I am to believe what I tell others, and then I must believe that the struggles that I am experiencing with my son are there because of the lessons that we both must learn and the progress that we both must make. What we are suffering through now will shape him as a man and will shape me as a mother, even though I have had almost a decade of practice already. In the answer, Bishop Davies quotes President Monson as teaching, “our Heavenly Father did not launch us on our eternal voyage without providing the means whereby we could receive from Him guidance to ensure our safe return.” Bishop Davies continues, “Essential to our personal faith and development is the unmistakable knowledge that our Father and our Savior want us to succeed. They want us to return to Their presence. Because of Their love for us, They have given us resources to obtain comfort, direction, and strength for our journey home. I speak of prayer, the wonderful and sublime ability to communicate and share our concerns with the Father; the Holy Spirit, which will enlighten and comfort us; and the words of the prophets, both ancient and modern. These resources give us understanding and direction in dealing with our challenges.” Heavenly Father wants my son to be successful, he has provided means whereby he can be successful and happy, it’s just up to me to find out what those means are, which in turn will strengthen my ability to commune with the Holy Ghost and find out the will of the Lord. Maybe this is my message to teach my son to pray and feel the Holy Ghost when he’s troubled, not to have a tantrum but to turn to the Savior for peace and comfort. But how do you teach that to a 7 year old? Maybe I need to teach him to say small, simple prayers when he’s upset or overwhelmed or frustrated, like “Heavenly Father, I’m sad, please help me feel better.” Then teach him how to recognize the Holy Ghost. Maybe I need to fast and pray for that myself. Maybe this is the will of the Lord, and I need to trust that he will tell me. Following the teachings of Jesus from yesterday, this seems to be especially poignant to me in the light of what my sons is suffering through. Jesus teaches us that we should ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” I’m struggling with this because every time my son has a hard day I'm furious with my ex husband for doing this to him, but that's not the point right? The point isn't to be mad at him or to be angry with all those who could step up but don't, the point is to trust that the Lord has a plan to make him happy and all of us stronger. I'm determined to find that plan, implement is and do what's best for my precious son. So as the Lord teaches us "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." The IM continues quoting President Henry B. Eyring as teaching, "Then the Savior set for us this standard of personal purity: 'And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.' The strengthening we are to give those we watch over comes from the Savior. We and they must forgive to be forgiven by Him. We and they can hope to remain clean only with His protection and with the change in our hearts that His Atonement makes possible. We need that change to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost... You may have confidence in the Lord's service. The Savior will help you do what He has called you to do, be it for a time as a worker in the church or forever as a parent. You may pray for help enough to do the work and know that it will come." How inspired for me at this particularly difficult time. The Lord has called me to be a parent, He will help me fulfill that calling, He will help me know what to do, He will give me the strength to help my children.
13:12 - Now we deal with temptation, and I believe that I posted on here the best explanation of the Savior's temptations that I've ever heard, but I've always wondered why this phrase is worded like this, why would the Lord lead us into temptation. HN answers " Will God lead us into temptation? Yes, Remember, this is a time of probation. We don't want the Lord to let us get more than we can take, you see. Don't tempt us more than we can stand. (Cain) said the same thing, "My suffering is greater than I can bear.' So it was alleviated. '... But deliver us from evil.' Why should he do that? Because that is our purpose in being here. We are bound to go too far because of the Fall. Whatever we do, we are bound to overstep. The game is set up so that we would sin, so that Adam would fall, and we would be led into temptation. We don't want to be carried in too far, but we are in it up to our necks anyway. 'Deliver us from evil' -we are not going all the way." In an April 2009 general conference address entitled "Lessons from the Lord's Prayer," Elder Russell M. Nelson, who is presiding at our stake conference this weekend by the way, he taught "The clarification on temptation is helpful, for surely we would not be led into temptation by Deity. The Lord said, 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'" So it's not necessarily that God will say "hey go that way" and there will be raging temptation, well maybe there is, we are here to be tested. It might seem counter intuitive to us now but surely in the premortal existence we asked to be led into temptation so that we could be tried and tested, and to me the phrase "deliver us from evil" could indicate a desire to face temptation boldly with divine strength to resist. JET gives an excellent discourse on this phrase in Jesus the Christ in which he teaches, "We are not to understand that God would ever lead a man into temptation except, perhaps, by way of wise permission, to test and prove him, thereby affording him opportunity of overcoming and so of gaining spiritual strength, which is the only true advancement in man's eternal course of progress. The one purpose of providing bodies for the preexistent spirits of the race, and of advancing them to the mortal state, was to 'prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.' The plan of mortality involved the certainty of temptation. The intent of the supplication appears to be that we be preserved from temptation beyond our weak powers to withstand; that we be not abandoned to temptation without the divine support that shall be as full a measure of protection as our exercise of choice will allow." We knew that we would be tempted, we desired to be tempted so that we could grow and progress spiritually, but we also desired divine help in resisting. It is interesting to note though that when we pray for strength to resist temptation that that means that we must do everything that is in our power to resist it ourselves. JET continues commenting on such, "How inconsistent then to do, as many do, into the places where the temptations to which we are most susceptible are strongest; for the man beset with a passion for strong drink to so pray and then resort to the dramshop; for the man whose desires are lustful to voice such a prayer and then go where lust is kindled; for the dishonest man, whough he say the prayer, to them place himself where he knws the opportunity to steal will be found! Can such souls as these be other than hypocrites in asking God to deliver them from the evils they have sought/ Temptation will fall in our way without our seeking, and evil will present itself even when we desire most to do right; for deliverance from such we may pray with righteous expectation and assurance." We are responsible to do our part in our own personal progress, it's like praying that we will grow closer to God but then ignore the scriptures, prayer, and church attendance on Sunday. One thing that I thought was interesting to note here was when JET said "for the dishonest man, though he say the prayer, to then place himself where he knows the opportunity to steal will be found!" Yesterday we learned the difference between praying, i.e. sincerely communing with God, vs. saying prayers, i.e. speaking words that don't have much meaning. It's probably not that big of a deal, but today when it was time for family prayers, I told the kids, "ok let's pray" instead of "let's say prayers." Little things that help me remember to have true conversation with God, talk to him not at him.
13:13 - "For thing is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." HN comments 'For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory...' This is left out, they say, in some of the New Testament texts, but Joachim Jeremias, who lives in Palestine and has been working for many years on this, has shown that this is part of the Lord's original prayer. He would have to end this way; it's a formal ending to the prayer. This is not a late addition." I thought that it was oddly placed in the sermon, but looking more closely I can see that this is where the prayer ends, and the next portion of the sermon begins. It's not just a flattering way to end speaking to God, JET teaches "Herein we acknowledge the supremacy of the Being whom we addressed at the beginning as Father. He is the Almighty in whom and through whose provision we live and move and how our existence. To assert independence of God is both sacrilege and blasphemy; to acknowledge Him is a filial duty and a just confession of His majesty and dominion. The Lord's Prayer is closed with a solemn 'Amen,' set as a seal to the document of the supplication, attesting its genuineness as the true expression of the suppliant's soul; gather within the compass of a word the meaning of all that has been uttered or thought. So let it be is the literal signification of Amen."
13:12 - Now we deal with temptation, and I believe that I posted on here the best explanation of the Savior's temptations that I've ever heard, but I've always wondered why this phrase is worded like this, why would the Lord lead us into temptation. HN answers " Will God lead us into temptation? Yes, Remember, this is a time of probation. We don't want the Lord to let us get more than we can take, you see. Don't tempt us more than we can stand. (Cain) said the same thing, "My suffering is greater than I can bear.' So it was alleviated. '... But deliver us from evil.' Why should he do that? Because that is our purpose in being here. We are bound to go too far because of the Fall. Whatever we do, we are bound to overstep. The game is set up so that we would sin, so that Adam would fall, and we would be led into temptation. We don't want to be carried in too far, but we are in it up to our necks anyway. 'Deliver us from evil' -we are not going all the way." In an April 2009 general conference address entitled "Lessons from the Lord's Prayer," Elder Russell M. Nelson, who is presiding at our stake conference this weekend by the way, he taught "The clarification on temptation is helpful, for surely we would not be led into temptation by Deity. The Lord said, 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'" So it's not necessarily that God will say "hey go that way" and there will be raging temptation, well maybe there is, we are here to be tested. It might seem counter intuitive to us now but surely in the premortal existence we asked to be led into temptation so that we could be tried and tested, and to me the phrase "deliver us from evil" could indicate a desire to face temptation boldly with divine strength to resist. JET gives an excellent discourse on this phrase in Jesus the Christ in which he teaches, "We are not to understand that God would ever lead a man into temptation except, perhaps, by way of wise permission, to test and prove him, thereby affording him opportunity of overcoming and so of gaining spiritual strength, which is the only true advancement in man's eternal course of progress. The one purpose of providing bodies for the preexistent spirits of the race, and of advancing them to the mortal state, was to 'prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.' The plan of mortality involved the certainty of temptation. The intent of the supplication appears to be that we be preserved from temptation beyond our weak powers to withstand; that we be not abandoned to temptation without the divine support that shall be as full a measure of protection as our exercise of choice will allow." We knew that we would be tempted, we desired to be tempted so that we could grow and progress spiritually, but we also desired divine help in resisting. It is interesting to note though that when we pray for strength to resist temptation that that means that we must do everything that is in our power to resist it ourselves. JET continues commenting on such, "How inconsistent then to do, as many do, into the places where the temptations to which we are most susceptible are strongest; for the man beset with a passion for strong drink to so pray and then resort to the dramshop; for the man whose desires are lustful to voice such a prayer and then go where lust is kindled; for the dishonest man, whough he say the prayer, to them place himself where he knws the opportunity to steal will be found! Can such souls as these be other than hypocrites in asking God to deliver them from the evils they have sought/ Temptation will fall in our way without our seeking, and evil will present itself even when we desire most to do right; for deliverance from such we may pray with righteous expectation and assurance." We are responsible to do our part in our own personal progress, it's like praying that we will grow closer to God but then ignore the scriptures, prayer, and church attendance on Sunday. One thing that I thought was interesting to note here was when JET said "for the dishonest man, though he say the prayer, to then place himself where he knows the opportunity to steal will be found!" Yesterday we learned the difference between praying, i.e. sincerely communing with God, vs. saying prayers, i.e. speaking words that don't have much meaning. It's probably not that big of a deal, but today when it was time for family prayers, I told the kids, "ok let's pray" instead of "let's say prayers." Little things that help me remember to have true conversation with God, talk to him not at him.
13:13 - "For thing is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." HN comments 'For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory...' This is left out, they say, in some of the New Testament texts, but Joachim Jeremias, who lives in Palestine and has been working for many years on this, has shown that this is part of the Lord's original prayer. He would have to end this way; it's a formal ending to the prayer. This is not a late addition." I thought that it was oddly placed in the sermon, but looking more closely I can see that this is where the prayer ends, and the next portion of the sermon begins. It's not just a flattering way to end speaking to God, JET teaches "Herein we acknowledge the supremacy of the Being whom we addressed at the beginning as Father. He is the Almighty in whom and through whose provision we live and move and how our existence. To assert independence of God is both sacrilege and blasphemy; to acknowledge Him is a filial duty and a just confession of His majesty and dominion. The Lord's Prayer is closed with a solemn 'Amen,' set as a seal to the document of the supplication, attesting its genuineness as the true expression of the suppliant's soul; gather within the compass of a word the meaning of all that has been uttered or thought. So let it be is the literal signification of Amen."
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