Our ADORATION of Him, produces a desire to EMULATE Him.

21 August 2017

Happy Monday everyone! How has your week been? Dang time goes by so fast; it’s already Monday! Miracles happen every day and last week they continued to come! What miracles happened in your week? 

 

My invitation last week was to 1) to identify something in your life that is ungodly and keeping you from coming unto Christ and 2) to remove or deny this from your life so that you may be perfected in Him! I really hope that this week you were able to do this!

"If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses." - Joseph Smith

I read this during the week and I started thinking about Jesus Christ and the His attributes.

For the serious disciple, the cardinal attributes exemplified by Jesus Christ are NOT OPTIONAL! They are FOUNDATIONAL! These developmental milestones take the form of traits, traits that mark our trail to be travelled. 

King Benjamin said "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, an will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19)

Alma said to the people in Gideon "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks to God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that y have faith, hope and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works." (Alma 7:23-24)

These attributes - the attributes of Christ are eternal and portable! Being portable to the degree developed, they will go with us through the veil of death, and still they will rise with us in the Resurrection  when all else stays behind.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do no break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:19-21; 3 Nephi 13:19-21)

The qualities of Jesus Christ that we must develop are made clear again and again in the scriptures; so is our need to follow the developmental path.

"For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I (Jesus Christ) have done to you." 

(John 13:15

"And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he (Jesus Christ) having set the example before them." 

(2 Nephi 31:9)

These qualities are not only developmental destinations, but if developed significantly, they also provide us with the balance urgently needed for travelling on the demanding narrow path! It is so easy to fall off one side or the other!

Divine direction is clear! "Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you." (3 Nephi 18:16)

And the development clue is given! "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matthew 11:29)

By being yoked to the Saviour, we can best learn of His perfected qualities.

Our ADORATION of him, produces a desire to EMULATE Him.

"The nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients he arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker and is caught up to dwell with Him. But we consider that this is a station to which no man ever arrived in a moment." - Joseph Smith

It is only in the bright light of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that we can see the truth as to who we really are and what our possibilities are! The Lord loves each of us too much to merely let us go on being what we are now, for he knows what we have the possibility to become!

It is all part of our journey home to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! Developmentally, we are all prodigals. When we really come to ourselves, spiritually, we too, will say with determination "I will arise and go to my Father." (Luke 15:18)

My invitation this week is to take upon yourselves the yoke of our Saviour so that we can learn of him and develop his perfect attributes! I promise that as we do this we will come to know him more and we will be closer to reaching the person that he knows we have the potential to become!

I love you all!

Sister Roos xx (: (: