Monday, July 20, 2020

Dread and Longing

In Alma 36, when Alma recalled the guilt he had felt for the sins he had committed, he said "the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror," and I can imagine why. Guilt and shame are powerful feelings. To be so filthy and yet stand in the presence of someone so pure, that would be horrible.

Yet, we don't have to feel that way. Yes, we've all sinned. We've all become unclean. But we can repent of our sins and become clean. And, if we are clean, or at least not horribly filthy, perhaps we will be able to bear the thought of returning to God's presence. In fact, we may even look forward to it. He is our loving Heavenly Father, after all. I'm sure He'd love to see us again, and if we're anywhere near worthy to remain in His presence, we may feel the same way.

Whether we dread meeting God again or look forward to it more than anything else is entirely up to us. Our actions are the main factor that determine whether we would feel comfortable in God's presence or not. Alma's actions had been very evil. Therefore, he felt very uncomfortable with the thought of returning to God for his Final Judgement. In contrast, immediately after Alma turned his life around, he saw a vision of heaven: "Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there" (Alma 36:22). Whether our souls long to be in the presence of God or are racked with inexpressible horror of the thought of going there depends entirely on whether we've repented or not.

So, let's repent. We all know that we're all going to die sooner or later. One day or another, we are going to stand in the presence of God, whether we want to or not, and we're all going to be judged by our actions, whether they were good or evil. So, let's do good works and repent of any evil ones so we can hopefully look forward to returning to God's presence rather than dreading it.

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