If we were not born with tendencies toward improper behavior, we'd be perfect right from the womb! Part of the purpose of life is to learn self-mastery, and that includes changing our behavior, our character, our personality, our desires, our very self-definition. We must become new creatures, pushing away our natural selves in favor of becoming like Christ. No matter how impossible the road may seem, with God it can be done.
What I do is a choice, even if I was "born that way." I have many natural tendencies that have been a struggle for me to overcome--in some cases a lifelong struggle.
If we were not born with tendencies toward improper behavior, we'd be perfect right from the womb! Part of the purpose of life is to learn self-mastery, and that includes changing our behavior, our character, our personality, our desires, our very self-definition. We must become new creatures, pushing away our natural selves in favor of becoming like Christ. No matter how impossible the road may seem, with God it can be done.
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“We’ve been told we can ban prayer, religion and faith from schools, business and public places and continue to be a strong and moral nation. We’ve been told that we can educate our children in a godless environment and still have responsible, productive citizens. We’ve been told we can subsidize unwed births and teach safe sex to teenagers and still maintain strong families and a commitment to the institution of marriage. These things cannot possibly be....
"When you have a big government, you’re going to have a little God, you’re going to have fewer values and morals, and you’re going to have a culture that has to be controlled by a big government. But when you have a big God, you can have a responsible and capable people with character to control themselves and lead their own lives, and you can have a little government that promotes freedom..." "... we don’t want government pushing religion, but we don’t want the government purging our society of the values and principles that are derived from religion." -Senator Jim DeMint; Values Voter Summit 2010 At a basic level, temptation is enticement to put faith in something that is not true. Because all action is driven by faith, Satan does not have to force us to act to get us to sin, he only has to convince us to believe in sin. In fact, even if he could force us to act improperly, it wouldn't necessarily change our hearts, and therefore his power over us would be limited.
The greatest power over a person can be gained not by force of action, but by persuasion of belief. The more a person believes in a deception, the more they will use their own free will to sponsor that belief. Thus, the battle over hearts and minds has more potential for power than any other battle. Heavenly Father also battles for our hearts and minds through persuasion. But if we are persuaded to believe truth, our choices are guided by correct knowledge, making us truly free. Contrarily, when our choices are guided by incorrect knowledge, we are simply being used by the Deceiver. "If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification. If you look at personal lives through that lens, you’ll see the same stunning and sobering pattern: people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most."
-Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Professor Business (link added) Several scriptural accounts speak of an inspired type of government which can be termed a united order. Members of these communities shared what they had, such that there was no rich or poor.
Is this united order equivalent to capitalism or socialism or something else? Like socialism, societal leaders had control over the collection and allocation of resources. Like socialism, redistribution of wealth was the standard. But there are at least two critical differences between the united order system of government and socialism. The first is freedom of choice. Members of a united order must voluntarily become a member of that society. The government in the united order was not upheld by a force of a dictatorial regime--not even by democratic majority rule. Rather, every single family in these societies chose to accept and uphold this system of government of their own free will. Those who did not wish to be involved in such a system were not required to do so. This universal faith in and adherence to the leadership of the united order is the glue that holds the society together. No force necessary. A second difference is that leaders of a united order system of government were inspired of God as to how to collect, allocate, and otherwise manage state affairs. Socialism relies on the wisdom of men for these decisions, and by so doing often fail to prepare adequately for the future, create inefficiencies, and even become corrupt and seek to serve themselves and their friends rather than those they are supposed to be serving. An inspired leadership has at their request the wisdom of God Himself, and can thereby avoid such pitfalls and create an efficient and prosperous society, as long as their constituents continue to choose to live in a united order. What about capitalism? Similar to capitalism, members of a united order can own personal property. But capitalism places trust in self-interest to protect freedoms and distribute resources, whereas a united order places their trust in God for both of these. Even when we accept that God allows trials in our lives, it can be difficult to understand why He allows the premature death of our loved ones. They've done nothing worthy of death, and yet God allows it to happen. It seems that their future has been needlessly thrown away and ours permanently scarred as a result.
If this life were the beginning and the end of our existence, it would be difficult to see how God could be merciful and yet allow such catastrophes to happen. However, this life is not the end. In fact, it isn't even the beginning. We lived with God before we chose to come to earth. We knew what trials and heartache we would have to endure, but we so wanted to become like our Father that we trusted His explanation that this schooling would be necessary if we were to reach that goal. Some exit the school of life seemingly early. But these, like all of us, simply move on to further education. The great Teacher knows who is ready to move on, who is needed in the next life, and who would ultimately benefit from enduring the trial of the death of a loved one. Death is not the catastrophe we make it out to be, because death is temporary. Extremely difficult, yes. Heartbreaking, true. But the disconsolation can pass. We will have opportunity to lived with our loved ones again, this time for eternity if we've done well in school--if we've become what we came here to learn to become. I often come across individuals who claim God has "abandoned" them. They have borne the brunt of hard times and wonder why there is no heavenly intervention on their behalf. In their eyes, it seems that God has forsaken them.
There are two reactions to this perceived abandonment. One is to continue to have faith, and the other is to give up. Satan tries to tell people who perceive that God has abandoned them that God must not care enough about them, so they might as well not care as much about Him. Through this and related lies, Satan helps lead people into more and more sin. Sinful living breeds further difficulties in life which are often again blamed on God's abandonment, even though many of these challenges are self-inflicted. In the midst of this pattern of turmoil, sometimes a person decides to set aside their bitter feelings. They are in such dire need that they turn back to God because they see nowhere else to turn, and in spite of everything they finally acknowledge to themselves that He is the one source where there may be hope for some measure of happiness. Those who either choose up front to remain faithful, or who later return to God as a prodigal son or daughter, eventually learn the same lesson. God's abandonment wasn't really abandonment at all. Like a perfect loving father who watches his little child learn to ride a bicycle, He held back from picking His child up each time they fell. Though His heart aches each time his child cries and calls out with pain, He knows that real knowledge comes through experience. Rather than solving His children's bicycling trials, He works to comfort and console, to encourage and guide. When a hill is too steep for weak legs to climb alone, He gives the support that is needed. Though the child is unaware, the Father is keeping the child in a path that provides only challenges that can be overcome. Though the roads are paved at first, mountain trails come once the child is able to bear the challenge. If this is abandonment, we should seek more of it. A baby must eventually be weaned, and a child must eventually learn the strength to live on his or her own. All our most difficult challenges are for our experience, and will be for our good. We can overcome them to the extent that we are faithful to our Father's guidance. We lived with God, our Father, as spirits before we were born. He knew we had to leave His presence to learn on our own if we were ever to become like Him. We knew there would be challenges and difficulties, and we knew they would be hard. But we were extremely grateful for the opportunity--so much so that we shouted for joy. We've forgotten that time of joy. We've forgotten the fact that we chose to come here and endure extreme hardship, where our Father would not solve our problems for us. But if we turn away His loving guidance completely, we'll never learn how to become like our Father. There are many who are either unsure of the existence of God or who do not believe in God at all. Many of us tend to condemn such individuals because of this lack of a fundamental belief in God.
However, we often make the distinction between believing in God and believing God. We know it is good to believe in Him, but better to believe Him. Self-described agnostics and atheists that follow God's principles and commandments are on a good path. Though missing an important belief, they are showing by their actions that they believe God even if they do not believe he exists (or are unsure). Even when missing a strong belief in the existence of God, a child of God can still exercise faith in His teachings. The argument might be made that atheists and agnostics are choosing to do good of their own will, and not out of any respect for God. Though their actions do stem from their own will, it is impossible for a person to act unless he or she is enticed by good or evil. All good comes from God, so when a person is enticed to do good, the origin of that enticement can ultimately be traced back to God Himself. Atheists and agnostics may deny that their enticement to be faithful came from God, but they can't prove it does not. They simply accept it on faith--false faith, in this case. We shouldn't be quick to condemn atheists and agnostics. They may lack a critical belief, but in many cases we may discover that they are more faithful than many who do profess a belief in God. One form of power is the ability to influence others. Many books have been written on this subject, and degrees are offered from universities reflecting expertise in the area. Those who can influence others have power to accomplish things that would be impossible to do on their own.
The spoils of the battles between Heavenly Father and Satan are power over Heavenly Father's children. When Heavenly Father wins a battle over someone's heart, He has more power to accomplish His will. When Satan wins a battle over a person's heart, he has the power to accomplish more of his work. The devil and those that subscribe to his methods try to maintain this power over a person through various methods, including coercion, deception, guilt, and fear. Each method reflects force and control. Heavenly Father and those that subscribe to His methods try to build their power over others not by force, but by persuasion, meekness, and unfeigned love. The effect is that His children continue to follow Him because they want to, not because they are compelled to. Satan's method for maintaining power over people only works in the short run. Eventually, fear no longer motivates a person to action. Coercion eventually breeds revolt. Wisps of truth eventually overcome deception. In short, it is difficult to maintain power using strong-arm tactics. In the world's history, one tyranny after another have fallen because they have not learned this lesson. Heavenly Father's method of maintaining power can last, and it can last without any compulsory means. Those who follow Him do so of their own free will and choice. In the next life, the Lord's Kingdom will be made up of those who voluntarily seek to live as He lives. These have proven in this life that they never will stray from that ideal, no matter how difficult times get. Our families and nations are kingdoms. If these kingdoms are to last, they must be lead using the Lord's methods, not Satan's. In families, Satan will tempt us to control our children through fear or force; in nations He will tell us to deceive and increase control to remain in power. We should not give in to these temptations, but rather model our leadership after God's--leading by persuasion, gentleness, and unfeigned love, leaving the final decision of whether to follow up to the individuals we seek to influence. What is the difference between hope and faith?
Faith is a belief in something, together with a level of assurance that that something is true. Faith = Belief * Assurance. Hope is desire for some occurrence or goal, together with a belief that that outcome will happen. Hope = Desire * Faith'. Because hope involves a type of faith, hope cannot exist without faith. Also, faith will not drive us to action if we do not have a desire for the outcomes we believe will result from our action. Thus, faith must be accompanied by hope to produce action. Both God's and Satan's armies are constantly working to influence the beliefs, desires, and assurances of each person. For instance, Satan would have us hope for coercive power and fulfillment of selfish lust. He attacks the surety of our beliefs in personal responsibility and good works. Heavenly Father entices us to believe His guidelines and believe them more deeply. He helps us feel the value of good works so our desire to do them increases. Though both sides constantly invite and entice us, neither side will force our mind. We choose our faith and hope every day. |
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