God Knows What's Best

This week in my New Testament class we have been talking about the suffering, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We learned about all the physical pains that He had to feel for our sake and the torture inflicted upon Him. This physical suffering was essential so that Jesus could know personally all of the pains that mankind feels. But to me what is even more touching is the mental and spiritual torture and suffering that He was called to endure. We know that Jesus has felt all of our sorrows, grief, pain, afflictions, and remorse (see Alma 7:11-13). He knows what it feels like to be rejected, wrongfully judged, guilty, and distant from the Spirit. As part of His sacrifice for us, He had to not only overcome physical death, but also spiritual death. Spiritual death is basically the complete separation of a spirit from Heavenly Father's presence and Spirit. Because we live on Earth, all of us are separated from the presence of God. We can feel glimpses of it through the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost. But, for us to be able to return to the presence of the Father, Christ had to overcome this spiritual death. In Matthew 27, we read about the Crucifixion and death of Christ. In these moments of extensive physical pain and suffering, Jesus was required to overcome it alone. The Father had to withdraw His Spirit so that Jesus could feel and overcome a complete spiritual death. In verse 46, Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Even the Son of God, the Savior of the world, questioned the Lord's will a few times. However, He never forsake it and was perfectly obedient and trusting that the Father knew best.

Like the Savior, we too must trust in God's will. It is OK to have doubts, fears, uncertainties, and questions. Don't keep them to yourself! The Lord wants us to have questions and seek the answers to them. He wants us to learn and gain a testimony for ourselves. Sometimes in the search for guidance and answers we may feel like we aren't getting anything in response. We may feel abandoned, hopeless, and confused. We may wonder if the Lord is really even there, if He really cares, or if He will ever answer our questions. There are some things in this world that will take us a long time to understand; there are others that we will never understand in this life. I testify that although sometimes we may feel distant from the Lord, He truly has our best interests in mind and will never let us fail without first offering us help. Sometimes He is silent in answering our pleadings not because He doesn't love us or care about our concern, but because He wants us to grow from making our own choices and using our agency. It's like learning to ride a bike. When a father teaches his child to ride, he lets go once the child becomes comfortable and strong enough to pedal on her own. This is not because he doesn't care about protecting his child. He knows that she can do it on her own, and that if she does begin to wobble and fall he can always swoop in to catch her. I know from personal experience that the Lord loves us and knows what we most need to grow and develop. I know that sometimes this requires Him to pull back a little and let us "ride" on our own. He loves us so much that He lets us have our agency. He does not want us to be His "robots" whom He controls ; He wants us to become self-sufficient and capable.

Obedience to the Lord

 This week we learned more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is through Jesus Christ -- and nobody or nothing else -- that we are ultimately saved. This caused me to reflect on how wonderful it is that Christ knowingly chose to sacrifice himself for our sake. This scripture stuck out to me as I read in the Book of John this week:

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus Christ was not forced to do what He did for us. He was not tricked or deceived. He knew the entire plan outlined from beginning to end. Jesus knew that it would be difficult and painful. But, He also understood the great eternal consequences of His sacrifice for all of Creation. He knew that it was a commandment from the Father to perform the Atonement for our sins, but the Father still let Him choose if He would do it or not. Nobody truly had the power to kill Christ, but He was able to give up His own life for our cause. He chose to come to Earth and experience a mortal life, though He already lived with God before. He chose to give up his life and experience all human sin, anguish, pain, weakness, doubt, and every other dark experience of mortal life. Because of this choice, Jesus knows us all individually and we are indeed His "sheep", if we will choose to follow Him. 

Jesus Christ also chose to rise and live again and to be resurrected. Because of Him, we will one day do the same. Through His obedience to the Father in completing the Atonement, our salvation is possible. We now must be tested to see if we can use our agency (ability to choose) properly too. We are given commandments of the Father that require sacrifice, persistence, and determination to keep. Our human nature makes this difficult for us and inevitable that we will slip up at times. This is alright! As long as we are firmly anchored in Jesus Christ and follow His example, we can be saved from our fallen state. We must follow His example of obedience to the Father's will. Though it may not always make total sense in the moment, I know that the Lord's will is always far better than our own. I have felt and seen this in my own life that as I choose to do what God would have me do, I am blessed. 

Answers to our Prayers

In Matthew 15, we hear the story of the Canaanite woman pleading for Christ to heal her daughter. This was pretty significant for the time because she was not a Jew by birth or religion, but instead a Gentile. Christ's ministry on Earth was specifically to the Jews, as He explains in Matthew 15:24, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel [the Jews]." At first, Christ completely ignores the woman's pleading for help and does not answer her at all. However, this silence does not deter her, as she then goes to the disciples and asks them to get her help. They refuse her and Christ tells her He was not sent to help Gentiles. But, she is evermore persistent and shows her faith in Christ as she asks for just the smallest bit of help that He could possibly give. Finally, Christ sees her faith and heals her daughter.

This story is a great metaphor for the ways in which we can receive answers to our prayers. The woman first was faced with silence. Often times, we may feel that our prayers are going unanswered because we have not received a specific "yes" or "no". This seems to happen especially when we are praying for help to make a decision. We may feel lost, confused, or like God isn't there or isn't listening. But, I know that this is just a chance for us to prove our faith, like the Canaanite woman. When we receive silence as our answer, we have to move forward according to our own choices and feelings and trust Him to catch us if we fall. We each are blessed with the power to choose, called agency, and the point of our life on Earth is to learn how to use this power correctly. So it only makes sense that God would not "spoon feed" us the answer to every single decision we have before us. If all you're getting is silence to a question, take heart! It shows that the Lord trusts you to decide for yourself and that He will guide you if you go the wrong way.

Many times, we are given a "no, not yet" or even a flat-out "no" for our answers. This can be disheartening when you really wanted to hear a "yes". But again, it is an opportunity to exercise your faith and trust that the Lord just has something better in store for you! Finally, we can also receive "yes" answers. Even these require us to stretch our faith by going outside of our comfort zone to act on the answer we receive. All in all, the purpose of God's responses to our prayers are to help us to trust Him and to exercise our faith in some way. We never know exactly what is coming our way, but as we seek the Lord's help and trust in our ability to follow it, we will never be steered wrong.

"The Tree Is Known By His Fruit"

Recently in my New Testament class we have been talking a lot about the miracles that Christ performed during His earthly ministry and what we can learn from them. This week, we spoke about how He would perform miracles even on the Sabbath, or holy, day. He was often criticized by the Pharisees for doing this, since they thought He was doing some form of work on the Sabbath day. They even went so far as to accuse Christ of healing people and casting out devils by the power of the devil himself. Christ explains, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? (Matthew 12:25-26). In other words, Satan cannot be a cause for goodness because it would contradict his very purpose and mission. He would fail to be the devil and would instead be following God if He were to encourage or give power to good actions. Therefore, Christ must have been working through the power of God.

This principle is applicable to our daily choices as well. As Christ said, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit" (Matthew 12:33). We are constantly bombarded with opposing voices, influences, and decisions in this world. Sometimes it is hard to tell which one we should choose. It is important to consider the consequences and results of each option we face. Will it bring goodness to us? Will it help other people, or take away from their happiness? Does it make us grow and improve, stagnate, or fall backwards in our progression? The merit of an action is measured by its fruits. In the same way, we can decide what kinds of people are good influences in our lives based on the fruits that they bear. This does not mean that we use these "fruits" as a sign and remain paralyzed in our action until we receive such a sign. But, as we begin to see the results that may come from a choice, we must move forward and trust in the Lord to guide our path.