The Abundant Life

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."  --Alma 37:37

In the last twenty-four hours I have been experiencing the "good," the Abundant life, as it says in the footnotes of this verse, and I never want to go back.  I just pray that I can hold on to this feeling and the memory of the vital principles which I have learned and of which I am gaining an ever greater testimony.

God gives us agency, which allows us to have a will.  It is then up to us to decide who we are going to give our will to, meaning who (or what) we will allow to influence us.  When we turn our will over to evil influences or even by default allow ourselves to be touched by the amoral influences of the world, we are left to rely on our own wisdom and our own strength, which are so insignificant and powerless.  We desperately need Heavenly Father's companionship and guidance if we want to be happy and at peace in this life, and especially if we intend to return to Him afterwards.

When we, with sincere heart and real intent, turn our will over to God, (essentially aligning our will with His,) and are truly willing to do or not do whatever He wants, we become imbued with the power of God.  We become true disciples of Christ, instruments in His hands.  We receive a degree of clarity that is unmatched.  We become really worthy to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.  (Think of it!  We have a member of the Godhead to be with us always!)  He can then direct us, help bring to our memory the things that we know to be right and true, and help us to know what is best when we are faced with so many good options.  He schools our desires so that things that used to be tedious are now thrilling, (such as scripture study.)  Or things that used to be tempting are now repulsive.  In other words, He opens our eyes to see things as they really are.  There are many terms for this, the most prevalent being conversion or "a change of heart."  But we also experience of change of mind.  We become spiritually minded instead of carnally minded.

I've experienced this change several times in my life, most of them being in the last few years.  I've learned the hard way (over and over again) that it is so painfully easy to lose your grasp on this precious gift, this close relationship with God.  There are many ways, but pride is at the top of the list.  The moment we start congratulating ourselves on our great successes or viewing ourselves above others because of our wonderful life or good decisions, we lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  (More often than not, when that has happened in my life, I have gone on thinking I still somehow had everything magically figured out on my own.  Then my house of cards came tumbling down, and I was left scrambling to pick up the pieces and figure out what went wrong.)

The list goes on and on beyond pride though.  Anything that Heavenly Father warns us of either through scriptures or prophets could potentially destroy our happiness and peace.  Another big player is gratitude, or the lack thereof.  When we rely so completely on the Lord for everything and never express sincere thanks for all He does, what makes us think He would go on blessing us?  Another more subtle problem is apathy.  When we begin to wane in the "anxiously" part of being engaged in the gospel, we so easily slip back into old habits while forgetting the harmful effects.

I could keep going, but I'm sure this list is sufficient for now.  I hope to make more posts on this topic over the coming weeks.  The more I learn, the more I realize that almost everything in the gospel ties into this idea of turning our will over to God.  But I wonder sometimes how many of us are actively doing so...