2 Nephi 30-31

(February 10, 2015)

                Throughout human history, we have received few words of the Father in our records.  The vast majority of the words of God are in fact the words of Christ – Jehovah in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament.  So when God the Father speaks, it is a really big deal.  He has spoken rarely to man, and His presence almost uniformly invokes a new dispensation of time.  When He does speak, He rarely says much beyond testifying as to the truthfulness of the words of Christ.

                So when we have words of the Father, above and beyond validating the words of the Savior, it is a really big deal that we sometimes miss.  And in this chapter we have the Father saying three related things: “Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son,” “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved,” and “Ye shall have eternal life.”

                The middle of these three caught my attention the most.  When we are going through trials and difficulties, it is easy to get discouraged and to think that we have somehow been cheated out of the easy life that we feel we must have been promised somewhere, somewhen (although we can’t quite remember when we were promised an easy life).  But God the Father, in one of His few pronouncements to mortal man, specifically promises us that if we endure to the end we will be saved.

                Enduring to the end, then, is not something to be feared or despised, but rather when challenges come our way we can recognize them as an opportunity to bind the Father Himself based upon His promise to us (for He cannot lie).  If we endure to the end, we shall be saved.  Without our trials, we could not endure to the end (for what would we endure?).  Thus the very trials that we fear are in fact the blessings that open the door for us to partake of salvation.

                In my own life I have experienced this.  For a long while, I dodged challenges and weakened myself as I avoided doing the hard, painful things that discipleship required.  But I have discovered that I experience so much more joy when I lean into my challenges, with gratitude in my heart for the painful moments in my life.  I don’t necessarily know what the Lord is teaching me at any given trial, but I have been through enough with Him to know that no matter how much it hurts it is for my benefit.  Since the day will inevitably come that I thank Him for my trials, I have started to go ahead and thank Him in my trials – for I know that one day I will see them as a blessing.