“I
glory in my Jesus.“ My Jesus
— my — mine! I could not get past the personal intimacy of Nephi's
statement. Tears welled up, spilling down my face. I
burned through and through as with a fire, a passionate
and yet childlike love for God. I felt as if someone
had just given me permission to approach the Lord, to
actually embrace Him, at least in spirit. I felt such
a passionate and yet childlike adoration for the Lord.
It felt as it I had suddenly awakened to Nephi's example
of approaching the Lord and coming to know Him as my
dearest friend, as my Jesus.
I
wept in gratitude to the humble, tender Nephi who had
reserved this saving truth of Christ's availability.
His personal administration in our lives can be ours,
as soon as we are ready believe and receive it from
Him. I mounted up in my imagination as on eagle's wings
(D&C 124:99), carried by the power of the love I
felt for Him and from Him. I had never before comprehended
how close the Savior is willing — and even desires —
to be to us.”
Colleen
continues,
How
can I possibly convey the spiritual awakening, the change,
that began to dawn in my heart from that hour? As I
continued to read the Book of Mormon, I found one witness
after another that there did not have to be any distance
between the Lord and me; that His love and power to
redeem were enough to save even me. His arm was strong
enough to encircle me and give me safety from my weaknesses.
A few pages later I read Jacob's words:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that
ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart,
and cleave unto God as he cleaveth
unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards
you in the light of day, harden not your hearts (Jacob
6:5 ).
I
knew it was true. I knew by my own experience that He
lives and that He lives for me. Something had changed.
I had lived this reality with the Savior. He was my
friend, my Jesus. (He Did Deliver Me from
Bondage, p. 92)
There
is little value in knowing that the Lord is
loving unless I take that love personally — unless I know it and feel it for myself. I have learned
that the Lord's love extends to me in so many different
ways. Often I receive His tender mercies through others
acting in my behalf.
Recently
I was ministered to by a friend literally sent to me
by the Lord in a time of great need. I didn't invite
her; she just came — not from next door, but from another
state! She knew she was needed but didn't know how much
until she was here. She held me when I cried; her arms
were the mother arms I needed and no longer had. Her
life experiences gave her the very words I needed to
hear, including a validation of my basic testimony.
“I
know you know God lives,” she said. “I know you know
that Jesus is your Savior.” She strengthened and comforted
and fortified me and assured me of the Lord's love for
me at a crucial crossroads in my life.
Taking
the Witness of the Spirit Personally
We
can easily have experiences with the Spirit without
taking it personally. My brother told me that he had
always believed that feeling the Spirit was simply a
witness of the truth. However, he learned to take it
personally at a time in his life when he was struggling.
He
took a class from James B. Cox; understanding dawned
as he learned for the first time that when we feel the
Spirit, it not only testifies of the truth of what we
are hearing or reading, but testifies of the Lord's
acceptance and love for us personally.
Brother
Cox said, “D&C 5:34 recommends that when we feel
the Spirit, we count it of God and then rejoice that
we were counted worthy to receive.” He suggests that
the privilege and honor of the companionship of the
Holy Ghost:
• Witnesses to me that my sins are forgiven
• Confirms that I am in the Strait and Narrow Path
• Comforts me in the trials of this life
• Shows me how to become like the Master
• Helps me overcome this world
• Helps me to master this body
• Increases my hope to be raised unto Eternal Life
(Becoming
Spiritually Centered, by James B. Cox, pp. 18, 25)
I
saw a huge change in my brother's countenance, a newness
of life as he took heart, learned to believe in himself
more from seeing and believing the implications of the
numerous times he felt the Spirit in his life. Taking
personally the experience of feeling the Spirit has
contributed greatly to the process by which he became
a powerful and effective senior missionary. He is currently
on his second senior mission!
What
a comforting, wondrous thing to realize that each time
we feel the Spirit we are receiving a personal love
letter from the Lord.
Taking
the Blessings of the Priesthood Personally
By
priesthood power the Red Sea was divided, manna fell from heaven, and centuries later all the keys
were restored in the latter days. However, all that
power does not affect my life unless I take it personally.
I
received a priesthood blessing as a baby; my life was
spared by a priesthood blessing before I turned two.
I was baptized by the authority of the priesthood when
I was eight, received all the temple ordinances in my
twenties. I have received many priesthood blessings
since that have changed the course of my life, given
me comfort, and kept me on track. Every Sunday I renew
my baptismal covenant through the priesthood ordinance
of the sacrament.
If
I deny myself any of those blessings, forget how important
they are to me personally, or fail to stay under the
priesthood “umbrella,” I am missing out.
Taking
the Scriptures Personally
We
know the Lord has said, in regard to the scriptures,
“What I say unto one, I say unto all.” He has told us
to liken the scriptures unto ourselves.
Steven
R. Cramer suggests we put our own name in any scripture
promise, and claim it for ourselves. For example: “I,
[Darla] was desirous that I might see, and hear, and
know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
which is the gift of God unto all those [including me]
who diligently seek him” (1 Nephi 10:17).
“For
unto [me] a child is born, unto [me] a son is given,
and the government [of my life] shall be upon his shoulder;
and his name shall be called, Wonderful, counselor,
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.” (2 Nephi 19:6)
So
many scriptures make it clear that the Lord's invitations
and promises in the scriptures are universal. He wants
so much for each of us, personally, to accept them.
For
example, lest anyone of us should think that we could
be the exception to any of his gifts, 2 Nephi tells
us,
He
[the Lord] doeth not anything save it be for the benefit
of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth
down his own life that he may draw all men unto him.
Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.
Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart form me?
Behold, I say unto you, Nay;
but he saith: Come unto me
all ye ends of the earth…
Behold,
hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake
of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all
men are privileged the one like unto the other, and
none are forbidden... and he inviteth
them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness;
and he denieth none that come
unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female;
and he remembereth the heathen;
and all are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 24-28, 33).
And
so it is with all the scriptures. We are invited to
partake, learn and be lifted. We are each invited to
claim the promises and feast on the words of Christ.
If the beauties of the earth were created with each
of us in mind, how much more so were the scriptures
written with each of us in mind! Surely the Lord, in
his foresight, would know how much a certain scripture
would touch my heart on this very day.
Taking
the Atonement Personally
Perhaps
the most important thing we can ever do in this life
is to take the Atonement personally. When I sing the
hymn, “Oh, it is wonderful that He should die for me,”
do I feel in my heart that I personally was thought
of, considered, included in that sacrifice? Do I realize
I can access the Atonement every day for myself?
Steven
A. Cramer said, “Of all the questions asked of bishops
in personal interviews, perhaps one of the most common
is, ‘How can I tell when I've
been forgiven?’ The answer is simple, but we often miss
it and make it difficult by our unbelief. The answer
is simply to trust in the redeeming blood of Christ
and believe his promises of ready, plenteous, abundant
forgiveness. Jesus Christ promised that ‘he who has
repented of his sins, the same is forgiven,’ and ‘he
that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall
be forgiven’ (D&C 58:42, 1:32). Notice that these verses
do not say what Satan would like us to think they say,
that if we try to be good, we could be forgiven, or
that we might be forgiven. What they say is that when
we repent, we shall be forgiven. This is an iron-clad,
unconditional promise from the Son of God.” (In the
Arms of His Love, Covenant Communications, p. 102)
The
adversary gladly provides “reasons” that I might be
excluded from this iron-clad promise. Stephen E. Robinson,
in his landmark book Believing Christ tells of
his frustration as a bishop with people who were sure
that they were the exception.
He said:
Yet
the 'good news' of the gospel is good news to me not
because it promises that other people who are better
than I am can be saved, but because it promises that
I can be saved — wretched, inadequate, and imperfect
me. And until I accept that possibility, until I believe
Christ when he says he can bring me into his kingdom
and set me on a throne, I have not really accepted the
good news of the gospel — I have only accepted the messenger
while rejecting his wonderful message.
If
we believe only in Christ without believing Christ,
then we are like people sitting in cold, dark houses
surrounded by unused lamps and heaters, people who believe
in electricity but who never throw the switch to turn
on the power. People like this often pretend to themselves
and to others that merely believing in electricity makes
them warm and gives them light,
but they still shiver in the dark unless they turn on
the power. Though the appliances may all work and the
wiring may be in good order, until we accept the power
itself, beyond merely believing in the theory of power,
we cannot enjoy the warmth and the light... until we
accept the reality of our own salvation, we have not
yet turned on the power” (Stephen E. Robinson, Believing
Christ, Deseret Book, pp. 10, 12).
Colleen
Harrison said, “It is our own vanity or unbelief in
God's mercy and goodness — that it should include even
us — that causes us to resist turning to Him, and to
instead go our own way. In our prideful, willful hearts
we are so vain as to imagine ourselves more powerful
to mess up than God is to make right; so we imagine
ourselves somehow beyond the power of Christ's atonement.
Then no matter what we profess with our lips, claiming
belief in Christ, we deny Him in the single most personal
way we can — for ourselves” (He Did Deliver Me from
Bondage, p. 92).
Elder
Holland said, “Sometimes we seek heaven too obliquely,
focusing on programs or history or the experience of
others. Those are important but not
as important as personal experience, true discipleship,
and the strength that comes from experiencing firsthand
the majesty of His touch” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland,
Ensign, 2006).
Personal
Application
How
can I know that the promises of the gospel apply to
me personally? How can I access the Atonement for my
own soul? How can I feel the effects of the Atonement
for me, for now, for this day? I can ask for these blessing
with a sincere heart, and know that as I continue to
ask, the blessing will come in the Lord's way, in the
Lord's time.
How
can I know that? Because I believe God's words. Because, as Enos testified, “And I, Enos, knew
that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept
away.” When Enos asked how it was done, the Lord answered, “Because of
thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard
nor seen” (Enos 1:5-8).
If
I am feeling doubt, instead of faith, I can remember
spiritual experiences in the past. If I have received
a witness of the truthfulness or applicability of any
gospel principle at any time in my life, that “counts.”
The Lord hasn't changed His mind. I can choose to “bear
testimony” to myself.
I
can say, “I know that God lives; I have experienced
his love in so many ways in my life. I know that Jesus
is the Christ and that His Atonement is real in my life.
The Spirit has witnessed that truth to my heart numerous
times. I believe the witnesses of all the holy prophets,
ancient and modern. They would not lead me astray. God
has sent me so many witnesses of the mission and power
of the Savior. I believe in His Atonement. I believe
it applies to me. Jesus is my only hope. I believe in
Him. I turn to Him. I reconcile my will to His. I surrender
to Him. I trust Him forevermore.”
I
can also sing or think of the words of favorite hymns
like “I Believe in Christ,” and “I Know that My Redeemer
Lives.” Filling my mind with such thoughts of testimony
is like filling the room with light. Darkness flees.
Doubt flies away, and I know again that the Lord will
keep His promises to me personally.
The
efficacy of the Atonement does not depend on my fickle
feelings. It applies even when I don't “feel” anything.
If I ask for the Atonement to apply, am willing to have
my heart cleansed and forgive others, if I'm turning
to the Lord with a true and honest heart, admitting
my need for Him every step of the way, I have done my
part, given my “62 cents” and it applies, period. Because
God cannot lie. Because His promises are true. Because
He has made that promise over and over, I'll take it
personally.
Every
Day and Every Hour
Taking
the Atonement personally needs to be a daily affair,
because we will never arrive at a place where we do
not need its cleansing or its comfort. Elder Bruce R.
McConkie, speaking of those sealed up by the Holy Spirit of
Promise said, “The more enlightened a person is, the
more he seeks the gift of repentance... It follows that
the sins of the godfearing
and the righteous are continually remitted because they
repent and seek the Lord anew every day and every hour”
(Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Vol. III,
p. 343).
We
read in Mosiah 26:30, “As often as my people repent will I forgive
them.” There we have the formula: seek the Lord anew
every day and every hour. Take the gospel personally
every day and every hour.
May
we all take the gospel personally; know that the Lord
created this world with all its beauty personally for
each of us; know the love of the Lord personally and
take it personally when we feel the Spirit; avail ourselves
personally of all the blessings of the priesthood and
know that the promises in the scriptures apply to us
personally. And most importantly, know that the infinite
Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ applies to each us
personally. No exceptions.
