What a week!!
It's been absolutely crazy, from the weather to the work, but it is all under the direction of the Lord.
I know that the Lord is with us through all our challenges and through all our victories. This week has been one of challenges and overcoming the "natural man". I have studied a lot about Gospel topics this week, a lot about the natural man and the power the Atonement has to change that aspect in our lives. As I have gone through the week, I have studied the Atonement and the power of testimony in the process of change in my life.
This week I started by thinking about change. Just that word means a lot, even more so in times in our world when people change for the worse, not the better. We need to change our lives for the better, and turn our hearts and lives over to the Lord so we can change, just like is taught in Alma 5.
How do we experience this change as we go through our lives? I took time this week to study about the moment in time when choice was everything, in the Garden of Gethsemane. The whole Plan of Salvation hung in the balance of the choice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
To have this mighty change of heart, we need to look to the Lord and through the Lord, our weaknesses can become strengths, just like is taught in Ether 12. As we stay close to our Father and our Savior. Jesus Christ we will understand the importance of prayer and the communication we can have with our Father, the direct relation we can have with him. We begin to understand the power of prayer. We will understand that the companionship of the Holy Ghost is one of power and amazement, and we will begin to be so grateful, for that is the way that the Father speaks to us.
One thing that I found really amazing was this, we were all intelligences before we were Spirits. We all had the ability top become anything and we became Spirit sons and daughters of a Loving Heavenly Father. The only way for the Atonement to work is that the suffering that Christ went through would have to spiritually and emotionally touch every one of those intelligences, it was an infinite and universal Atonement, and the only reason He performed and went through the Atonement is so that we can have the opportunity at mercy and repent of our sins.
The Father and the Son love us so much that they sacrificed so much, more than we can comprehend so we can be together, in the Celestial Kingdom, forever with our families and loved ones.
I know the Atonement is real, it has the power to cleanse all from sins if we only submit to the will of the Father and use the Atonement, that gift that we have been given to change our hearts, and become like Him.
This week, I finished reading a book written by M. Russell Ballard, Our Search for Happiness. In this book, Elder Ballard shares his testimony of the reality of the Gospel and the power it has to change our lives and as we grow, continually, to understand more about the Gospel, the Savior, and the teachings of the prophets, we can truly come to know the reality of it all if we only pray with a real intent to know the truth it contains, God promises that he will respond.
One last thing that I thought was really cool this week, the power of prayer is real. The first thing that began this last dispensation was a short scripture in the New Testament, the book of James,
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;and it shall be given him."That scripture is all about prayer and that power it has when you simply pray with faith. But the cool part is, at the end of the Book of Mormon, the last main principle is one of prayer, something that Joseph Smith did right at the beginning of his life as a prophet,
"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."That is what we teach our investigators the first lesson, the power of prayer and the amazing chance we have to communicate with our Father in Heaven, directly with God Himself. I challenge everyone to talk with our Father in Heaven about everything that goes on in your life because I know he is interested in everything you are doing. Please pray to know of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to grow your testimony of this wonderful work.
I know this Gospel is true and I know it can change the lives of anyone who is willing to open their heart to hear directly from our Father in Heaven.
-- Until next week,
Elder Corom Jones
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." -John 8:32
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