A High Price to Pay

Whenever the title of a talk is a noun, one question one might ask oneself as they study that talk is "What is [the title of the talk]?" For example, one might ask themself "What is Faith?" or "What is the Atonement?" When I spoke about treasures of eternal value, I rhetorically asked "What are treasures of eternal value?" or rather "Which treasures have eternal value?", and then I provided a general answer as well as three specific answers. When I listened to President Nelson's talk, "The Price of Priesthood Power," I asked myself, "What is the price of Priesthood power?" In the last several paragraphs of his talk, President Nelson gave me the answer.

He started by listing several Christlike attributes. Specifically, he listed "faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity, ...diligence... [and] humility." In essence, in order to have spiritual power, we need to be like Jesus Christ, which makes a lot of sense. Jesus performed great miracles with His Priesthood power. If the reason He had such power was because of His righteous behavior, we can increase our power by emulating His behavior.

But that's not all President Nelson said we must do. In addition to exercising Christlike attributes, we must also "Pray from our hearts, ...search the scriptures and feast of the words of Christ, ...worship in the temple regularly, ...[and] follow President Thomas S. Monson’s example of serving others."

It's a long list, and nothing on that list is as easy as merely "reading the scriptures" or "saying your prayers."  Instead, we must study the scriptures and pray from our hearts. Obtaining greater Priesthood power cannot be by result of passive, habitual practices. To really grow in the Priesthood, we must actively seek to do so.

In my opinion, that sounds like a lot of work. That's probably why President Nelson warned us that "In a coming day, only those men who have taken their priesthood seriously, by diligently seeking to be taught by the Lord Himself, will be able to bless, guide, protect, strengthen, and heal others." All other Priesthood holders, those who are less diligent, will lack the power to effectively use it.

This is bad news for me and my family because diligence is not one of my strong suits. I'm okay at service, and sometimes I do well at studying the gospel, but I'm not always very good and continuing to do the things I should, and when I do, I do so mostly out of habit. Unfortunately, it seems as though the force of habit isn't going to be enough. In order to really grow one's spiritual power, one has to take an active approach with respect to the gospel.

I'm going to listen to President Nelson's talk again. I know many of the things I need to do, but I'm not sure I have enough motivation to do it. But President Nelson conveyed his message with such a sense of importance that it, to some measure, increased my motivation to more actively participate in the gospel. Listening to the talk again one or two more times might help me realize that this message is important enough for me to need to act on it, even though I that's going to mean an awful lot of work.