What do I need to pray for?

 

I think it’s sometimes easy for me to see what I think others may need so I pray for others to find the gospel and be converted. I often overlook myself. 

Am I praying for myself to be converted? Do I have a willing heart? Am I praying for a willing heart to seek and do his will or do I think it’s for others because I see all the stuff they need to fix? 

I believe I need to clean my own side of the street (or worry about myself...) and pray for the courage to not only hear his will but to have the courage to put into action what I hear.

So easy to sin… but, even easier to stay clean!

 

Mosiah 2:36-37 says, in part, that “… if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord … that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples.”

The active words that are central to this verse are, “if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken”.  Transgression is what drives the Spirit away (a sin of omission can also be a sin of commission, and both are transgressions…).

So, to choose to act (or possibly not act [sin of omission…]) contrary to the Lord’s Will is to lose the Spirit which is sin.  Why else would the Spirit withdraw from you?  You are unclean…

Stay on the strait & narrow path, though, and be clean.

If you start on the strait and narrow, you are clean, and you have the Holy Ghost and Spirit of Christ to guide you and make good choices—now just never step off the path—and stay true till the end! 

Any and every time you are tempted to leave the path or act contrary to that which you’ve been commanded to do, the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Ghost will remind you of what Christ would have you do and the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will strengthen you so that you can stay on the path of righteousness.

JPS

Pride

1 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon—the keystone of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), chapter 13, verse 9, says:

And also for the praise of the world do they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into captivity.

I ask myself why do they seek to destroy the saints of God…

I believe the answer is part of the oldest stories of all:

In the Pre-mortal existence, Lucifer’s plan (which was in direct opposition with the plan of God and daughter to destroy the agency of man) was rejected by God the Father and the plan of our eldest brother, Jehovah (who would have the name Jesus on Earth and He would become our Savior and Redeemer!) would be accepted and adopted as The Plan of Salvation or The Plan of Happiness (after all, it was the Father’s Plan, and His Father’s Plan, and His Father’s Plan…).

Lucifer and the third of the host of heaven that followed him, were enemies to God.  Enemies to Jehovah and they hated God the Father and God’s Well-Beloved Son.  They still hate God and His Plan.  Hate Jesus Christ who championed that Plan and everyone who follows that plan…

One way, the easiest way, they can beguile mortals into carrying-out their hate-filled rebellion is through the mortal weekends of pride.  Make man feel that pride through the praise of the world or through that which they feel pride over already…

“… And also for the praise of the world do they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into captivity.“

JPS