D&C 58:26-33

58:26-29 - We’ve had many examples of people who received counsel from the Lord that was general and non-specific in nature and the individuals ended up being incredible servants of God, Hyrum Smith being an excellent example. Here we get to the point where we can see how people can take the general counsel from the Lord and use it to grow spiritually into giants. The Lord says, “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.” This statement is only true because we have access to personal revelation, we are able to pray and have our prayers heard and answered, we are able to discover and execute God’s plan for our lives by working with him through the mediums that he has provided. The Lord continues, “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” This is what we just talked about, the Lord does not and will not command in all things because we grow not only through obedience but through initiative and ingenuity, we are strengthened when, as little flowers, we forge our own path toward the light and our own relationship with God. He’s a director, not a dictator. The Lord continues, “But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.” I think that in order to understand this verse, we would have to focus on the motivations of the individual who does nothing until he is commanded. Someone who loves God and wants to serve him, will be actively looking for opportunities to do that, will constantly be trying to refine his life so that he can do what God wants him to do next, to master the next class, if we use the curriculum analogy that we used last week. Loving God is an active lifestyle. Waiting for the command of God is a passive lifestyle, and it would seem to me that the motivation of the person who waits would be to do whatever he wants to do and then grudgingly comply with the Lord’s command when he gives it. I would imagine that this person would act more out of fear of punishment than out of love and desire for righteousness, thus the Lord says that they will be “damned” or be stopped in their progression. The IM quotes Elder Ezra Taft Benson as teaching that “usually the Lord gives us the overall objectives to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but he expects us to work out most of the details and methods. The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the Spirit. Less spiritually advanced people, such as those in the days of Moses, had to be commanded in many things. Today those spiritually alert look at the objectives, check the guidelines laid down by the Lord and his prophets, and then prayerfully act- without having to be commanded ‘in all things.’ This attitude prepared men for godhood… Sometimes the Lord hopefully waits on his children to act on their own, and when they do not, the lose the greater prize, and the Lord will either drop the entire matter and let them suffer the consequences or else he will have to spell it out in greater detail. Usually, I fear, the more he has to spell it out, the smaller is our reward.” This is a difficult concept for me because I always feel like I’m trying my best, even when I’m not doing that well, so instead of “losing” or “gaining” rewards, I feel like I’m either closer or further away than I was before, and that’s my gauge, because I don’t know what blessings or rewards I have lost out on, or what is coming and when it’s expected, so for me, it’s more positive to look at it from the view point of “am I closer than I was yesterday” and then the blessings and tribulations come when it’s the Lord’s will for me to have them.

58:30-33 - I believe that this next concept comes back to the concept discussed in D&C 130:20-21 which says, “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated- and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”  The Lord says, “Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled? I command and men obey not; I revoke and they received not the blessing. Then they say in their hearts: This is not the work of the Lord, for his promises are not fulfilled.” I can see examples of this principle all throughout my life, I am disobedient then I am angry when I don’t get what I want, or I am obedient then am angry when I don’t get what I want. I don’t feel that my life if is a series of “don’t get what you want now,” and so I suffer, I feel that my life is a series of gifts and blessings received as I am ready for them. I’ve seen this explicitly many times throughout the last few years, and it’s been a painful yet building experience. The IM teaches, “The Saints sometimes fail to do their duty and to keep the commandments of God. But they expect Him to make good to them the promises He has given to the faithful. If He does not, they complain. They neglect their prayers; they absent themselves from their meetings; the break the Word of Wisdom; they withhold their tithing; but when sickness comes and falls like a dark, terrifying shadow across their path, they expect immediately Divine interference in their behalf, through the administration of the Elders. If their expectations are not realized, they say, in a rebellious spirit, ‘His promises are not fulfilled.’ The reply of the Lord to that is, ‘Their reward lurketh beneath.’ They must look ‘beneath’ for their reward; they have no claim on heaven.” This all seems very doom and gloom, but to me, it doesn’t sound like that to me, I’m very confident that as I do my best, as I strive to be the best that I can be and draw closer to the Lord, that I will be blessed when I am ready. These verses remind me of a saying that my grandma has on her fridge by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that says, “Some blessings come soon, some come let, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”