Seek Not to Counsel the Lord

 Jacob 4:10  Wherefore, brethren, 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.

It is so tempting to try to tell the Lord what blessings we need, or how to fix our problems.   If He would just do things our way, everything would work out fine.  But Jacob tells us otherwise.  Don't tell Him what to do, but let Him tell US what to do.

Elder Richard G. Scott said this:  "Sometimes you may feel to complain to the Lord about a challenge that has come into your life through no fault of your own. . .

God knows what is best for us. Although we may not understand why we experience some things now, in His timetable we will know and be grateful."

Also Elder Scott:  "Submitting 'cheerfully and with patience' to all His will lets you learn precious if difficult lessons and eternal truths that will yield blessings."

N. Eldon Tanner: "The word of the Lord is so clear to us, and his laws so plainly designed for our happiness, that it is difficult to understand why some people feel their own judgment is superior, and disregard God’s laws and bring upon themselves misery and unhappiness by so doing." 

I think we all know that telling the Lord what to do is folly, and yet sometimes we feel we can see so clearly that we just wonder why the Lord can't see things as we do.  I guess it's the natural man.  It's especially hard for those people who need to control everything to let the Lord be in control.  But we need to do as Elder Scott quoted and submit "cheerfully and with patience" and watch for the blessings to come.

 

In This Thing We Do Rejoice

  Jacob 4:2-3   But whatsoever things we write upon anything save it be upon plates must perish and vanish away; but we can write a few words upon plates, which will give our children, and also our beloved brethren, a small degree of knowledge concerning us, or concerning their fathers—

Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.

It was with much difficulty that the Book of Mormon prophets kept the records, engraving them upon metal plates.  That wouldn't exactly contribute to a flow of consciousness.  But they felt it was important and were willing to pay the price.  Why?  "For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming . . ."  They wanted to testify of Christ to their children and all those who came after.  They hoped that their descendents would receive their words with thankful hearts and not think of their first parents with sorrow or contempt, but with joy.

What kind of a legacy are we leaving?  When our children and great-grandchildren look at our lives after we are gone, what will they have from us to judge us by?  There may be a few mementos passed on to them, maybe some stories of our lives, but unless we find a way to leave our testimonies, the rest is only fool's gold.  I hope my children can receive my words with "thankful hearts" and look upon them with joy.  For I know of Christ and have a hope of His glory many thousand years after His coming.  I know that my Redeemer lives.  

And I rejoice that it is so easy to pass on that testimony.  I don't have to beat gold into flat plates, or carve and engraven letters onto it.  I just have to take a paper and pen, or a laptop and record my thoughts and feelings.  A little time; very little effort.  So easy.  In this thing I do rejoice.

 

Feast Upon His Love

Jacob 3:2   O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his ^alove; for ye may, if your ^bminds are ^cfirm, forever.

There are several key elements to this scripture.  

• First, he tells us that he's talking to the pure in heart.  So we need to be obedient and faithful to have pure hearts.  Our desires must be to Him.  The term "pure in heart" is often used synonymously with Zion.  But also consider this scripture in D&C 97:16, referring to the temple:    Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God.  So there is a promise that if we are pure in heart, we may come to the temple and see God.
• Lift up your heads - We are sons and daughters of God.  To devalue a child of God is to criticize the work of His hands.  We certainly should be humble, but to downgrade and criticize ourselves is as if we are saying that the Lord creates inferior sons and daughters!  This is a sin that we need to repent of.
• Receive the pleasing word of God - I've spoken in another post about our responsibility to RECEIVE the gifts God gives us, including His pleasing word.  This requires more work than simply seeing or acknowledging His word.  We must examine and accept and incorporate His teachings into our lives in an active way.
•  Feast upon His love -  The Lord radiates love.  It pours out from Him naturally, but sometimes we refuse it or only allow ourselves to notice it and acknowledge it.  Just like feasting on the scriptures, feasting on His love requires our attention and our time and devotion.  Our hearts must yearn for Him and open to Him.  How do we do this?  Part of it is gratitude, opening our eyes to see the wonders He gives to us every day.  When we realize even a portion of the blessings that we tend to take for granted, our hearts rejoice with gratitude and reverence for Him.
• Our minds must be firm - We must be dedicated and unmovable, steadfast, strong in our convictions.
• We are promised that if we do this, we will have the opportunity to feast upon His love forever. What a joyous time that will be, to be in His presence, surrounded by our family and dear friends!  Forever, worlds without end.

How Much Better?

Jacob 3:6-8
Therefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?

I don't know about you, but I have a real struggle with self-righteousness and judging others.  When I see people who are really messing up their lives, especially people I don't know, I wonder why they don't shape up and do what's right.

But Jacob is telling us here that the Lamanites are judged as righteous for those things that they do worthily.  He tells us that the husbands love their wives and the wives love their husbands and they both love their children and the Lord blesses them for that.  And their evil acts are the result of traditions handed down by their fathers.

It gives me great peace to know that my children who aren't doing everything I would like them to be doing are being blessed for those things they do as good people.  They love their children and they lead honest, hard-working lives.  Those are important things, and the Lord is blessing them for that.

Just as the Lord gives the Lamanites some slack because they were raised with inherited false traditions, it's important for me to cease being judgmental about people who weren't raised with the many blessings and advantages I've had.  Elder Uchtdorf gave his masterful talk in April of this year in which he said:
"We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. God is our Father. We are His children. We are all brothers and sisters."  This was the talk where he told us to "Stop it!"

When I think about the many advantages and blessings I've had in my life, of the generations of righteous ancestors, of my faithful and worthy parents who set such a good example for me, of my education and the many spiritual experiences I've had, of a righteous and supportive and hard-work husband, of dear friends who taught me and set good examples for me, I'm so humbled!  Spiritually, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and have been raised in a spiritual penthouse!  How cruel of me to look down on those without my advantages and judge them.  President Uchtdorf's words really apply to me.  Stop it!

He says: 

When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. We “keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.”

The more we allow the love of God to govern our minds and emotions—the more we allow our love for our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts—the easier it is to love others with the pure love of Christ. As we open our hearts to the glowing dawn of the love of God, the darkness and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade.

That is what I want for myself.  That is what I pray for.

 

Riches

Jacob 2:18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

This is such an interesting statement!  Most of us have mixed feelings about riches.  We feel that they're probably evil, while wishing we had more of them.   Some of our suspicions about money stem from Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 6 which is often quoted as money is the root of all evil.  But that's not what Paul said.  See what President Hinckley had to say:

Gordon B. Hinckley

“Continuing with the words of Paul, ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1 Tim 6:10). It is the love of money and the love of those things which money can buy which destroys us. We all need money to supply our needs. But it is the love of it which hurts us, which warps our values, which leads us away from spiritual things and fosters selfishness and greed.” (Ensign, May 1997, p. 49 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 175)

Jacob tells us in verse 19 what the qualifications are for righteously obtaining riches:

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

gospeldoctrine.com says this:

"The pursuit of wealth must be done with qualifications, 1) one must first seek the kingdom of God, 2) one must have obtained a hope in Christ, and 3) the riches are to be sought for the benefit of others. If a rich individual meets these qualifications and is not lifted up in pride, he or she is justified before the Lord. Otherwise, wealth, or more accurately, the love of money, is a vice which destroys the soul. As the Savior said, a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:24)."  

There are a couple of additional things I'd like to say about riches.

1. We don't believe it, but we actually are already wealthy.  If you've been in a developing country or a 3rd world country, you've seen poverty.  People who live with many people to a small apartment, or who don't have indoor bathrooms, or no air conditioning, not enough food to eat, who can't provide for their families can tell you that Americans are all rich.  Sure, when we compare ourselves to our neighbors, or the people with big expensive houses, we feel poor, but we're really, really not.
2. When we have the Gospel, we're rich, no matter our possessions or our income.  When we can feast upon the Spirit, when we know our Savior, when we can study the scriptures and listen to the words of the prophets, we are rich indeed.

 D&C6:7 Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.

Sometimes Our Blessings Are Our Trials

Jacob describes in chapter 2 that some of the Nephites have begun to search for gold and silver, and as they did this the Lord blessed them exceedingly.  The Lord is often good to us in this way, giving us that which we desire.  The riches are definitely described by Jacob to be a blessing:  v. 13  "And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches . . ."

But as with any blessing, what we do with it is what determines our progress.  The Nephites used their riches for fancy things and "costly apparel" which made them think they were better than others.  That seems to be a frequent consequence of expensive clothes.  They make us look at those around us to see if they look as good as us, and anyone who doesn't, receives our scorn.  But that's a rant for another time.

I think that we can look at almost any blessing and see that there is a way for that to become a trial to us.  Our choicest blessing, our family, can sometimes irritate and annoy us.  Our spouse can grate on our nerves, our children can try our patience.  In extreme cases, our children can wander and go against our teachings and cause great heartache and grief.  

We can't control the actions of others, but we can be aware that just because something is a blessing doesn't mean it can't be a trial.  And the opposite is true.  We know that some of our greatest trials can end up blessing our lives because of the growth we receive from them.

Magnify

Jacob and Joseph magnified their calling to teach the people. They taught the word of God “with all diligence …, by laboring with [their] might” (Jacob 1:19).   I set out to see how that applied to me.  I believe I need to make the most of my callings and ponder how those programs can bless the lives of those I serve.

This is from Teaching, No Greater Call:
As you magnify your calling to teach, the Lord will magnify you. President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “There can be no failure in the work of the Lord when [we] do [our] best. We are but instruments; this is the Lord’s work. This is His Church, His gospel plan. These are His children we are working with. He will not permit us to fail if we do our part. He will magnify us even beyond our own talents and abilities when necessary. This I know. I am sure many of you have experienced it as I have. It is one of the sweetest experiences that can come to a human being” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 372).

Then in my search I landed on an article on how to magnify our callings while simplifying our lives and not making extra work for ourselves that takes time away from our families.  We don't necessarily need to get carried away in handouts and decorations that really don't add to the spirituality of the meeting.

“May I give you a word of caution as you plan your activities. Make sure that the essential needs are met, but do not go overboard in creating so many good things to do that the essential ones are not accomplished. … Remember, don’t magnify the work to be done—simplify it.” Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “The Doctrinal Foundation of the Auxiliaries,” Ensign, Aug. 2005, 67.

So we need to keep in mind that there should be a balance.  We do need to magnify our callings in finding ways to bless the lives of those we serve, but we also need to focus on what's important and not be "distracted from the essentials by adding unnecessary work that takes us away from our families or causes us undue stress. There must be a balance in all things. If we pray to know how the Lord would have us magnify our callings, He will help us do so."  Ensign, December 2005