How Gentle God's Commands

It seems a regular occurance with me that I get this idea of something I think will be really great. I start to do it, and halfway through, it changes completely, often becoming shorter and simpler but better, much better. It happens to me quite regulary when I'm writing (including blogging), but I've had occasional experiences where it is an action, or something I am trying to explain that changes entirely once I start. For example, last night.

I was feeling in the mood to pray; I wanted to pray long and hard, and perhaps wax eloquent in my words to the Father. I wanted to rededicate myself to doing His will in all things, and I wanted to be good (if that makes any sense). So, I found a place where I could be alone and it was quiet. I got on my knees, and I started out with the regular things. I'm, ashamed to admit that it was a bit "vain repetitious" but my heart was sincere in my desire to change some things in my life. The trick was, I didn't know what needed to be changed. I prayed to know by the Spirit how I could better serve; I told the Lord that I wanted to dedicate myself to him. Then I stopped. Somehow I knew what to pray for, so I did. I asked for help in one simple area. I promised that I wouldn't just try to fulfill my obligations, I would. I simply said that I would.

I made a sacred promise, a covenant of sorts that I would do this ONE thing every day without fail. And I felt the spirit whisper that if I kept my part of the bargain, God would bless me with an added measure of His Spirit. I promised. I asked. And today, I reported that I had been true to my promise so far. This is my personal covenant with God, and I must be accountable for maintaining my side of the deal. And I know that His promises are sure.

How gentle are the commandments of God. "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive" (Alma 7:23, emphasis added).

Among all the attributes he commands us to have, right with patience, humility, and diligence, God commands us to ASK. That doesn't mean being demanding and telling the Lord everything we need/want and expecting that it be granted immediately. Remember, the commandment to ask is nestled among the commandments of humility and patience, but it is nonetheless His desire that we ask of Him.

I have long been of the opinion that it is wrong to break our wills to do what the Lord wills. Rather, we ought to "bend" our wills to become ONE with His will. Then we do not need to give up anything we want to serve the Lord, because we want only to serve Him; that is how we become like He is. (As a side note, sometimes this opinion gets me in trouble, because I flatly refuse to do anything I don't want to. This can be problematic as I have not yet reached the exalted station in which my will is perfectly aligned with the Father's, so I'm not suggesting that we never sacrifice what we want to obey the commands of the Father, but that we should be striving to make our lives such that what we want is exactly the same thing the Lord would command.) As we become thus as He is, our asking becomes less of a demand and more of a desire to align our lives with Him by keeping our covenants. We then ask for knowledge and understanding, compassion and charity so that we can better serve Him and His children, because the is what we want.

Essentially, I've decided that I liked the way my prayer went last night; I want more like that. It wasn't necessarily pretty, and I didn't make all the reports and give all the eloquent praise I had intended, but I was led by the Spirit. It seemed that the Spirit was telling me what I should ask for, and then blessing me for asking it. Indeed, how gentle are God's commands.