“as
he prayed”
-I can’t
help wondering if Lehi’s prayer was a casual 30 second event or if his prayer
was long and patient enough that the Lord had a chance to answer/speak.
-praying
is an act that opens us up to God. It is
a serious action and should not be trifled with for we never know when he will
call on us to stand up and be about his work.
Prayer demonstrates a humility and a desire to gain God’s mind
concerning a matter. Lehi prayed and his
life was never the same again! Are we
ready for a similar measure of divine interposition in our lives? While our path may not take such a dynamic
change of trajectory as did Lehi’s, when God answers our prayer we will never
be the same. For this reason some men
pray but not really. They want to go
through the act of praying but they do not really want to have the experience
of prayer where God actually answers back and gives them a work to do. God’s work is never easy since it always runs
contrary to the popular pursuits of man.
If we were honest we would admit that in our prayers we really do not
want God to answer back. This is the
reason why we must be humble, broken, exhausting every other available option,
before we are really ready to have an experience with God. It is at this point --when we are willing to
try anything, when we no longer care what anyone else thinks—when we are really
ready to hear God’s voice. Isn’t it odd
how man hears God’s voice in the extremities of their lives. A comfortable man or woman will rarely hear
God’s voice or receive answers to their prayers. They are simply not in an attitude to hear
what he has to say.
"...there
came a pillar of fire..."
-other
pillars of light/fire: Moses on Sinai,
Joseph in the sacred grove, Kirtland temple, when the Holy Ghost sanctifies,
“he saw and
heard much”
-what was
this “much” that Lehi saw and heard? If
it was “much” why do we have almost no specifics of this experience? No doubt they occupied many pages of the Book
of Lehi.
“because of
the things which … he did quake and tremble”
-we are
often casually willing, even desirous, to have/receive some kind of revelation/
manifestation but if we knew what we would see, I wonder if we would really
ask. Perhaps this is why we don’t
receive: 1. to protect us when, if we got what we asked
for, we would be in over our heads = condemned because we were not in a
position to do what we would then be required to do after so great a
manifestation. 2. to protect us from
naively surrendering our free agency.
The Lord knows what we are ready for more than we –too much light to someone
not ready to receive can blind, not enlighten.
No comments:
Post a Comment