Tag Archives: New Testament

Consider Your Ways (Perception, Reality, Success)

As part of my job, I keep a close eye on marketing and analytics blogs for a sense of industry trends and best practices that we can bring in to benefit what the Church is trying to accomplish.
One such blog post by Adobe, got me excited. I love a compelling idea paired with a simple visual representation. I give you the takeaway visual from Bill Ingram’s “You’re Not Really Segmenting Your Audience”
Venn diagram with two circles, overlapping with the center section the focus.
Now this was intended as a gospel study post. As I got looking at this, I saw just a higher application on life. Let’s generalize these circles to see the higher pattern:

perception-reality-success

So here we have a visual representation of how we perceive the world around us affects our ability to do those things we hope to accomplish. To the degree we understand things as they truly are, the more we can act with confidence expecting a certain result.
  • It wasn’t until man understood enough around the reality of gravity, air pressure and aerodynamics that Orville and Wilbur Wright got their contraption to take flight. Today there are thousands of flights in the air at any given time.
  • George Washington died, in effect, from a common cold. It wasn’t until we understood how bacteria and viruses work that we could develop reliable medicine to counteract their symptoms. Even serious diseases can be completely reversed or kept in check.
  • Religiously, the children of Israel throughout the Bible struggled to keep their promised land safe. But the Lord promised that to the degree they kept the commandments they would be protected.
  • Christ defines Eternal Life in terms of having a true grasp of reality: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3, emphasis added).”
  • Nephi in the Book of Mormon observed that the compass they were given by the Lord worked according to the faith and diligence they gave to it.

Isaiah emphasized a similar dichotomy to our perception compared to reality. He reminded us that,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).”

I think this is a statement reminds us that our own perceptions, assumptions and constructs around how we make sense of this world should always be checked for accuracy.  To the children of Israel, Haggai offered on behalf of the Lord the following challenge to reflect and evaluate,

“Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways, (Haggai 1:5-7).”

So here, then, is an opportunity to regularly evaluate what I am doing and what the net result of those actions. The good news is the Lord has a vested interest in our success. He is eternally gracious and committed to helping us bridge the gap between our perceptions and things as they really are. As He counseled Moroni,
“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them (Ether 12:27).”
There are a number of ways He does this. Let’s brainstorm a few:
  • Prophetic counsel given through Church leaders at General Conference
  • Divine guidance in the form of the words from ancient prophets found in the scriptures
  • The sacrament gives us a chance to reflect, repent and commit anew to follow Jesus Christ
  • Loving input by parents, family or friends who see a risk we might not immediately see
  • Personal revelation where the Holy Ghost reminds us of the teachings of Christ (see John 14:26)

I’ll close by leaving this open ended with two links to two scriptures that can serve as jumping off points for how we might regularly consider our ways on a more regular basis:

What verses would you add? How do you ‘consider your ways’?

Pray Always (2 Nephi 32:8)

From time to time, I find myself wondering if in this or that moment it would be appropriate to say a prayer. I know there are a few scripture mastery verses out there on the subject, so I always what is the hold up, even for myself. The Lord is pretty clear on the subject:’pray always.’

For me, the most telling verse is in 2 Nephi, chapter 32, just before an exhortation to pray always.

“If ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray” (2 Nephi 32:8. emphasis added).

From that, I conclude that the adversary is engaged in a deliberate, coordinated effort to break the habit and predisposition to pray. Any distance or time he can put between us and our Father in Heaven gives him a window of opportunity to make us miserable like unto himself (see 2 Nephi 2:27). Where so many blessings are contingent on our asking, I can see why disrupting our desires and intentions to pray would be key for him.

If we can recognize more readily the promptings to pray and the temptation to not pray, I suspect that knowledge alone will help us a great deal to put us in a better position to do the will of the Lord in a given situation.

To do that, let’s consider the Lord’s Prayer. When we consider the different aspects of the Lord’s prayer, what can they teach us recognizing the influences of the evil spirit that discourages us to pray?

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

A few observations:

1. ‘As we forgive our debtors’

Effective prayer involves personal commitment to act in order to receive blessings. The adversary certainly would have us be passive in our prayers.

2. Give Us Our Daily Bread

Prayer, and our reliance on God is a daily matter. Our relationship is a daily experience. Satan would have us grow complacent and lax in the maintenance of that relationship.

Howard W. Hunter taught,

“If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night–always–not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help” (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 39).

3. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This statement reminds me that I am the servant, and the one who needs guidance (not the other way around).

President Gordon B. Hinckley said,

“The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries–we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469).

Conclusion

Some of the best advice I received regarding the mindset of prayer was the imagining the Lord was there in front of you as you prayed. As I remember that there is not just another person listening to my prayers, that it is the Eternal and Infinite God and Father of us all, and let that faith guide my thoughts and words, suddenly prayer becomes a much more honest process.

“But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul”

Christ Heals the Ten Lepers, But One Becomes Whole

In the New Testament, when the ten lepers called out to Christ, they were instructed to go show themselves to the priest.

As they went about doing the thing they were told to do, they were healed. But only one turned back and cried with a load voice praising God. Christ reflects on how only one had truly acted in a manner that was in the spirit of true worship and gratitude.

The other nine are doing a good thing, they recognized the Savior and displayed enough faith to be healed, and were going and doing the very thing Christ told them to do.

But more important to the Savior than what we do, is who we become. The one, a Samaritan no less, became something more that day. He went from obedient leper to whole disciple because he allowed gratitude and humility to stop and turn him back to the Savior.

As was taught to Joseph Smith,

“And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.” (Doctrine and Covenants, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 59)

Who knew gratitude was so very becoming of us?