Today, in Sunday School, we discussed, among other things, the importance of having faith in God and His plans and timing. This can be tricky for us, because sometimes, God's plans take our lives in different directions that the ones we'd like of expect. In my case, it now seems apparent that God's plan for me involves me being in a place, spiritually, that I've been taught God doesn't want me to be in. I would have thought that, since God doesn't want people to be where I spiritually am, He would help me get out of it or would have steered me away from it in the first place. Yet, since God led me here, I can only assume that this is where God wants me to be, at least until He leads me out again.
I'm reminded of Nephi and Laban. God doesn't normally approve of murder, but in Nephi's case, God specifically commanded it. Nephi naturally balked at this command, but he ultimately trusted in God and did what he was commanded to do, even though it would otherwise have been sinful to do so. God knows His laws better than we do. He knows when they apply and when there are exceptions. Sure, we would love to know what all the rules are, rather than a handful of (usually) hard rules and a few dozen guiding principles, but if God were to explain all of the rules and exceptions thereto, I'm not sure it'd be practical to record and refer to them all. Rather, we are to trust God enough to keep His commandments and to trust Him enough to continue to follow Him, even if it seems to lead us off the path.
Nephi was disturbed by the seemingly sinful command he was given, but He trusted the Lord and followed His promptings, and because he did, everything worked out according to God's plan. I may be in a similar position. All my life, I've been trying to follow what I thought was God's plan for me, and I assumed I would have God's help in doing so, but the guidance God has given me has led me in some unexpected directions, and I'm just left to assume that God knows better than I do. God's plans don't always seem to make sense to us, but we have to trust that His plan is perfect and that everything will make sense in the end.
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Are you sure that God led you to this place? Is it a good place? Do you choose this place?
We make choices. Other people make choices that affect us. Satan and those influenced by him strive to decieve us and often do very well. Figuring out which voice to follow can be difficult. Nephi had worked it out. He learned to recognize the voice of the Lord. I struggle.
If you want God to lead you, do the things that He has asked us to do (as best you can) and be patient. He allows us to have trials, sometimes really difficult trials. (If they were not hard, they wouldn't be tirals, right?) Great, good people have suffered and struggled when it doesn't seem reasonable to us. They certainly don't /didn't deserve it. Why? I don't know. But, they kept the faith.
If we lose faith, what do we have? Will we be happier?
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