The Green Lantern needs to recharge his ring every 24 hours or so to make sure it stays effective. The recharging process, I mentioned, involves a lantern-like device, though the power behind the device and, in turn, the Green Lantern ring, actually comes from a Central Power Battery on Oa. With a fully-charged power ring, the Green Lantern can use the amazing powers I described yesterday, including flight, force-field generation, shooting powerful energy blasts, and creating "solid light" objects, with the only limits to those powers being his will-power and his imagination.
What I didn't mention yesterday is that the Green Lantern has an oath he recites while he recharges his ring. I don't know if that's necessary, or just traditional, but for the sake of the analogy, I'll just say it's a good example to follow. It may or may not be important, but at the least, it's a good idea. The "every 24 hours" part is a recommended minimum frequency of recharging the ring. After intense usage, he may need to recharge his ring before the 24 hours are up, but even if he hardly uses his ring at all, it's still recommended that he recharge it at least every 24 hours to keep it fresh.
In a similar manner, we need to "recharge" our testimonies every 24 hours to make sure they stay strong. The recharging process typically involves reading scriptures, though the power behind the scriptures and, in turn, your testimony, actually comes from God. With a fully charged testimony, we can discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and enjoy the inspiration and guidance of the Spirit, which helps us increase in the will-power to resist temptation, and can even improve our imagination by giving us inspired ideas.
Wow, if the Green Lantern was a Mormon, he'd be unstoppable!
The oath part of the analogy requires a little more imagination to translate, so bear with me for a moment. In the Green Lantern's oath, he recommits himself to the detection and opposition of evil. We don't do that. Instead, we regularly (though not daily) recommit ourselves to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. We do that every week, when we take the Sacrament. For the daily, recharging-our-testimony part of the analogy, we pray. It doesn't matter a whole lot what we say for each of our prayers, though we're certainly not supposed to recite the same words every time. The purpose of the prayer is to strengthen the connection between ourselves and God. As long as the conversation bring us closer together, the words themselves don't matter all that much. Common tips are to be humble and respectful, to open by addressing Heavenly Father and close in the name of Jesus Christ, and to use biblical pronouns.
It is recommended that we "recharge" our testimonies every day through prayer and scripture study, though, as our circumstances allow (and may require), we can read the scriptures more often than that, and we're certainly supposed to pray more often than that. In fact, there are a number of scriptures that say we should pray always, especially in the face of temptation. I suppose that would be like actually using the power ring rather than keeping it charged, though, as with Green Lantern's power ring, if you find that you're using yours to resist temptation often, you should probably recharge it as frequently as you can. You might even consider tapping into a power that the Green Lantern never had: Fasting.
Fasting is a monthly ritual where we go without food or drink for 24 hours, skipping two meals, and using that sacrifice to draw our souls closer to God, but, as with scripture study, it can be done more frequently as needed to access greater spiritual power and/or to request special blessings, like healing for the very ill. Unlike scripture study, however, there is a recommended maximum for Fasting, so as not to harm our bodies. It's typically not a good idea to fast for more than 24 hours at a time, or to fast more frequently than once a week.
Those who normally ask a lot of their bodies, like construction workers, probably shouldn't fast while they're working, and there are some whose medical circumstances require that they don't fast at all. In those cases, you might consider a modified fast, temporarily giving up something other than what you need to stay healthy. A person who can't fast from food might still fast from certain kinds of food, or from certain activities, like non-essential computer-usage. A construction worker who normally listens to the radio while he works might sort-of fast by listening to hymns or General Conference talks on CD instead. The idea is to make a small, temporary sacrifice, and to have that experience bring you closer to God. Your Bishop can help you think of specific ideas to match your individual situation.
In whatever form it takes, fasting is a powerful way to recharge our spiritual power and to tap into even greater power, as it's needed. Which leads me to one last point I want to make today.
All of this recharging of testimonies and drawing closer to God is of vital importance, spiritually, but it won't get us any closer to being able to fly through outer space, make force-fields, or move objects with our minds. As fun as those abilities would be, we don't really need them. What we need in order to pass the tests of life and become more like our Heavenly Father is the ability to discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and develop the will-power and self-mastery to resist temptation and choose the right. Those are the "super-powers" we need, and those are the super powers God is offering us. And all we need to do to access those powers is to keep our testimonies charged.
What I didn't mention yesterday is that the Green Lantern has an oath he recites while he recharges his ring. I don't know if that's necessary, or just traditional, but for the sake of the analogy, I'll just say it's a good example to follow. It may or may not be important, but at the least, it's a good idea. The "every 24 hours" part is a recommended minimum frequency of recharging the ring. After intense usage, he may need to recharge his ring before the 24 hours are up, but even if he hardly uses his ring at all, it's still recommended that he recharge it at least every 24 hours to keep it fresh.
In a similar manner, we need to "recharge" our testimonies every 24 hours to make sure they stay strong. The recharging process typically involves reading scriptures, though the power behind the scriptures and, in turn, your testimony, actually comes from God. With a fully charged testimony, we can discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and enjoy the inspiration and guidance of the Spirit, which helps us increase in the will-power to resist temptation, and can even improve our imagination by giving us inspired ideas.
Wow, if the Green Lantern was a Mormon, he'd be unstoppable!
The oath part of the analogy requires a little more imagination to translate, so bear with me for a moment. In the Green Lantern's oath, he recommits himself to the detection and opposition of evil. We don't do that. Instead, we regularly (though not daily) recommit ourselves to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. We do that every week, when we take the Sacrament. For the daily, recharging-our-testimony part of the analogy, we pray. It doesn't matter a whole lot what we say for each of our prayers, though we're certainly not supposed to recite the same words every time. The purpose of the prayer is to strengthen the connection between ourselves and God. As long as the conversation bring us closer together, the words themselves don't matter all that much. Common tips are to be humble and respectful, to open by addressing Heavenly Father and close in the name of Jesus Christ, and to use biblical pronouns.
It is recommended that we "recharge" our testimonies every day through prayer and scripture study, though, as our circumstances allow (and may require), we can read the scriptures more often than that, and we're certainly supposed to pray more often than that. In fact, there are a number of scriptures that say we should pray always, especially in the face of temptation. I suppose that would be like actually using the power ring rather than keeping it charged, though, as with Green Lantern's power ring, if you find that you're using yours to resist temptation often, you should probably recharge it as frequently as you can. You might even consider tapping into a power that the Green Lantern never had: Fasting.
Fasting is a monthly ritual where we go without food or drink for 24 hours, skipping two meals, and using that sacrifice to draw our souls closer to God, but, as with scripture study, it can be done more frequently as needed to access greater spiritual power and/or to request special blessings, like healing for the very ill. Unlike scripture study, however, there is a recommended maximum for Fasting, so as not to harm our bodies. It's typically not a good idea to fast for more than 24 hours at a time, or to fast more frequently than once a week.
Those who normally ask a lot of their bodies, like construction workers, probably shouldn't fast while they're working, and there are some whose medical circumstances require that they don't fast at all. In those cases, you might consider a modified fast, temporarily giving up something other than what you need to stay healthy. A person who can't fast from food might still fast from certain kinds of food, or from certain activities, like non-essential computer-usage. A construction worker who normally listens to the radio while he works might sort-of fast by listening to hymns or General Conference talks on CD instead. The idea is to make a small, temporary sacrifice, and to have that experience bring you closer to God. Your Bishop can help you think of specific ideas to match your individual situation.
In whatever form it takes, fasting is a powerful way to recharge our spiritual power and to tap into even greater power, as it's needed. Which leads me to one last point I want to make today.
All of this recharging of testimonies and drawing closer to God is of vital importance, spiritually, but it won't get us any closer to being able to fly through outer space, make force-fields, or move objects with our minds. As fun as those abilities would be, we don't really need them. What we need in order to pass the tests of life and become more like our Heavenly Father is the ability to discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and develop the will-power and self-mastery to resist temptation and choose the right. Those are the "super-powers" we need, and those are the super powers God is offering us. And all we need to do to access those powers is to keep our testimonies charged.
1 comment:
" he recommits himself to the detection and opposition of evil. We don't do that. " I think in a sense we DO do that when we take upon ourselves the name of Christ and promise to alway remember him. Only we come at it and word it in the positive form and GL does from the negative. I think we are trying for the same thing ultimately.
" All of this recharging of testimonies and drawing closer to God is of vital importance, spiritually, but it won't get us any closer to being able to fly through outer space, make force-fields, or move objects with our minds." Don't you think that GOD can do all that and more if He wants to? and aren't we trying to grow up and eventually become like God. I don't think there is a good super power that anyone imagine that God cannot do better. There is no end to His awesome skills.
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