After making a great deal of progress on the talk I'm giving in Sacrament Meeting, I ran out of steam when I got to the last section and decided I'd take a break and find something to blog about instead. After hanging out on Facebook and watching a few Youtube videos, I got the idea to blog about the last section of my talk and see if I could work out the kinks here.
Here's the problem: I'm talking about Fasting and the last section is about Sacrifice. We skip two meals and pay a Fast Offering as a sacrifice to God, partly in hopes that He'll give us the blessing we're fasting for, but it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes, we sacrifice for a blessing and still don't get it. It's true that sometimes God requires a sacrifice before He gives us a particular blessing, and I know that Fasting increases the persuasiveness of our appeals to God (I'm not entirely sure how that works, either), but there are some things that God is not going to give us whether we sacrifice for them or not. And even if the blessing is something God's willing to give us, we can't just BUY blessings. "I skipped two meals and donated a ton of money to the church, therefore God has to bless me. He owes it to me!" That's not how it works!
So how does it work? What role does Sacrifice play in securing blessings for ourselves and others?
Reading the Gospel Principles Manual's chapter on Sacrifice, which is conveniently located right after the chapter on Fasting, didn't help much. It said "Our willingness to sacrifice is an indication of our devotion to God." Devotion to God is always answered with blessings, in this life or the next. Perhaps we sacrifice, not to "buy" blessings, but to show that we're worthy of them? Or to show how badly we want them? Probably closer to that last one. But the manual also said this, "Only through sacrifice can we become worthy to live in the presence of God." But people, even good, religious people, don't like having to sacrifice things, so perhaps that's part of the reasons God offers blessings to those who give sacrifices. We're not using sacrifices to bribe God into giving us blessings; He's using blessings to bribe us into giving sacrifices. But that theory is really far-fetched, too.
Maybe we give sacrifices to show God how badly we want the blessings we're asking for. It might convince Him, or it might not. I guess that depends on the blessing we're asking for and how badly we want the blessing, which we show by our sacrifices.
Another thought is that God will always give us the blessings we qualify for, but they still might not be the blessings we ask for. Maybe you've got an old, beat-up, run-down car, and you fast and pray for the means and opportunity to buy a replacement, but God knows that a new car isn't what's best for you, so instead, He blesses your old, beat-up, run-down car so that it'll keep trucking for as long as you need it to. We have to remember that God is so wise and loving that He'll give us the blessings that are best for us, even if they're not the blessings we pray for and sacrifice for.
So, maybe for my talk, I could say that sacrifice always brings blessings. As the hymn says, "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." But God knows our needs better than we do, and He's more likely to give us the blessings we really need than He is to give us the blessings we pray for and fast for, but wouldn't actually end up being best for us. God is wiser than we are, so we should be humble and try to accept His will and be grateful for whatever blessings He gives us. Odds are, when He gives us something other than what we asked for, what He gives us is better than whatever we asked for.
Yeah, that ought to do it. Thanks for your help!
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