Wednesday, August 7, 2013

2 Nephi 26

(August 7, 2013)
One thing I can remember my teachers struggling with growing up was the question from some of my peers as to why they shouldn’t sin now and repent later.  It wasn’t phrased in quite that manner, of course, but that we the general gist of the conversation.  I never had a question about this, though, as I always understood (at least intellectually) that sin brought unhappiness.  I haven’t lived my life as though I understood this fact, but I haven’t really questioned it.

But with this reading of this chapter, I realized another important reason for not procrastinating our repentance.  We are given the capacity to repent solely because of the Spirit’s efforts – that gentle pull towards something better that strives within us against our animalistic nature.  We cannot put off our repentance safely because we are not in control of our capacity to repent.  We cannot inflict pain upon the Savior now and say with the utmost certainty that He will grant to us the strength to repent at a later point.  He loves us and that includes loving us when we sin.  But if we turn our backs on Him, how can we do so with a continued demand for Him to be ready to grant us His strength (an increased portion of His strength, of course – thanks to our eroded spiritual strength from our sins) whenever and however we want?  We have no right to demand such a thing from Him, and we cannot repent without this gift...period.

Instead, we must fight now and fight hard while we have the gift of the Spirit pulling us towards righteousness.  We must be ever thankful to our Father for this precious gift and not squander it through our appetites.

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