He is loyal to us. We become more and more loyal to Him as we make covenants.
He wants us near him, the same way I want my children near me with that feeling of dearness and tender closeness. Scripture study and prayer are about actually building a relationship with Him.
My kindness shall not depart from thee. There is nothing we’ve done or circumstance we’re in that is beyond His reach. Moses 6 “walk with me.” Enoch. We need to walk with the Lord. We can seek his strength and guidance in our lives.
Just like when he was a boy and saw pictures of Switzerland yet visited and really experienced its majesty, we don’t realize the experiences we can have with God.
Daily repentance is so important.
One morning, while he served as a Mission President in Texas, an Elder called him saying he needed to talk with him. Elder Pingree felt a little saddened by this correctly assuming it was to confess sin yet happy at the same time that a missionary was coming clean. The Elder came and he was ready to hear what he had to say. The Elder proceeded to take out a huge list written on multiple sheets of paper. He started confessing sins from when he was 8 years old. Pretty soon it was apparent that these were “minor” sins that one would usually work out between oneself and God directly. However, he let the missionary go on and on and read off everything. He asked the Elder why he was doing this and he explained that he had been reading in 3 Nephi 8:1 about how in order to perform miracles one needed to be clean, every wit. Elder Pingree said he knew the area where this Elder served was a very wealthy and difficult area. The kind of area where there are electric fences and multiple rottweilers protecting homes. The Elder said they were having no success and if anyone needed a miracle, he did. He told the Elder that as his Priesthood leader, he accepted the confession as a full repentance. Later, the Elder asked him if he heard what happened. He hadn’t and the Elder proceeded to tell him that later that day when he had confessed all his sins he could think of, they went to every gas station and every house they could possibly go to and near a gas station and man in a fancy car stopped and told them to get in the back. Elder Pingree said, “You didn’t get in, did you?” the Elder replied, “Of course we did.”. He said he found some comfort in knowing he was there to tell the story considering they just jumped in the back of a random stranger’s car. The man in the car said he had a successful business, family and life but he was feeling like he was missing something. He took them home, made them dinner and they proceeded to teach him all of the lessons that evening. He never said if the man eventually joined the church, but said it certainly felt like the missionary’s being clean “every wit” had been blessed with that as a miracle. Elder Pingree clarified that most sins can be worked out between us and God and wasn’t suggesting we all go into our bishop’s office and confers every sin, however, he did suggest he followed this Elders example going into his Bishop’s office and did something similar. This reminded me of a devotional by Elder Cook, where he tells of taking a part off an old abandoned car as a teen then as a missionary, realizing it needed to repented off and then after his mission, finding the owner of the old car and reimbursing him for the part he had taken. A sweet story of repenting and making wrongs right.
He also told a story of a sister missionary who served in his mission. She had an abusive childhood and ran away from home at age 15. She ended up being taken into a home of a good family, joining the church and serving this mission but she had hard things that lingered. She found healing and capacity through the atonement of Jesus Christ and would write in every letter how the atonement of Jesus Christ helped her do things she never thought she could. He said she became a “walking hospital” full of love, goodness and healing and was able to bless every companion and situation she was in.
Like Nephi was given strength to break cords. We can be given strength to break cords we carry from sin. His story of having negative feedback from a man about an event he had put months of planning and effort into. It was bothered him for weeks. Finally, he felt the Lord ask him, “Why haven’t you asked for my help?” He prayed and that week, the feeling dissipated. Now he interacts with the man without hard feelings.
You are so valuable that Christ went through what he did for you. My take on this though was that Christ went through hell to “snatch” me from it.
He shared this quote by John Newton, a slave trader turned minister who wrote the words to Amazing Grace. “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
