1 Nephi 5-7

(January 7, 2015)

                I have always liked Nephi praying for the strength to burst his bands, and then them being loosened (it reminds me that our prayers are often answered in ways that we don’t request, but which accomplishes the Lord’s purposes just the same).  But this time I drew on that same lesson while considering the bands of sin, and our desire for strength to burst those bands.

                Is it not reasonable that, rather than being given the power to burst our own bands of sin, we are given Divine aid to merely loosen those bands from us?  And that, as we continue our efforts (line upon line) eventually we are given the capacity to slough them off entirely?  We may rarely have the dramatic moment of bursting the bands of sin (although I have experienced this a time or time), but more frequently we will have the experience of seeing our capacity to change being increased from Grace to Grace until we escape the bands of sin.  And whether bursting them or having them loosened and us wiggling out, the important thing is escaping the bands of sin rather than the method.