Sacrifice

When Douglas D. Holmes spoke about how to get the Gospel Deep in Our Hearts, the last and arguably most important bit of advice he gave was "Finally, to get the gospel of Jesus Christ deep in our hearts, we need to engage in it—to give our time and talents to it, to sacrifice for it." This is something I'm reluctant to do, or even blog about, because I'm not a big fan of making sacrifices.

I don't like having to make sacrifices, even for such a good cause. Sacrifice, by its very nature, is hard. Sacrifices are painful. That's part of why they're so powerful; God rewards sacrifices greatly partly to compensate us for the great deal of will-power it takes to make them. The greater the sacrifices God asks us to make, the greater the blessings are likely to be. It only stands to reason that the greatest gifts God offers us also require the greatest sacrifices.

So perhaps I should try to be willing to make sacrifices in exchange for God's blessings. Sure, sacrifices are difficult and painful, but the results are usually worthwhile. Besides, I need those blessings. Painful or not, I have little choice but to pay the price for them.

I don't like making sacrifices, but sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. If I want those blessings, I need to be willing to make some sacrifices for them.