Alma 13

(September 23, 2014)

                Do we recognize what a privilege it is to hold the Melchizedek Priesthood?  I know that I often do not understand the magnitude of the blessing that I have been given in this regard.  I use it less frequently than I ought to, I magnify it less than I should, and it constrains my behavior less than I know that it should.  But this privilege, one that we have been blessed with as a result of our faith, is such a large blessing.

                By that same token, it is no accident that we hold the Melchizedek Priesthood.  In this Church, because we advance in Priesthood ranks by age, we sometimes forget that it is an important thing to progress to holding the Melchizedek Priesthood.  Looking back on my life, I can see the ways that I could have gone astray at a number of points along my path, and now I hold the Priesthood worthily at the culmination of a number of trials and challenges that I have been blessed to overcome.  

                Holding the Priesthood, then, grants me a great deal of confidence (I can see why those terms are used together).  As I am beginning now to understand what the Priesthood is and what it is not (and yes, I had and have much to learn in this regard), I find that my confidence to approach the Lord for those things that I stand in need of increases – I am beginning to recognize just what that privilege means.  I may be foolish and weak, and have so many faults, but I am a Melchizedek Priesthood holder and the office which I hold matters in the same way we can disagree about politics but the President of the United States is worthy of respect because of his office.  Holding the office of Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood is a matter of eternal significance that dwarfs the simple holding of the office of President of the United States.

                This knowledge should fill me with confidence, and should fill me with the intense desire to never live below the level of this privilege.