Abiding Precepts Weekly – 2 Nephi 26-30

Passage #1

. . . and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God!

2 Nephi 27:14

Precept #1

Don’t reject God’s word.

Those who know me will not be surprised to hear me admit I am a perfectionist. Or . . . at least I’m a recovering one.

Perfectionism has allowed me to learn and do some pretty amazing things. But it has also been a huge hinderance – particularly with my acceptance of Jesus Christ and His gospel.

Don’t get me wrong – I have known for myself – for certain – since I was 17 years old that Jesus Christ lives. Sacred experiences I had that year taught me clearly that He lives – and that He atoned for me.

But perfectionism often kept me from accepting that I was worth saving or even could be saved. Worse still it kept me from truly believing that Jesus would save me and instead planted a false belief that I could or even had to save myself by making all the “right” decisions and never doing wrong. I falsely believed that I needed to be and actually could be perfect so that I could be with Heavenly Father again without causing Jesus too much trouble in the process.

This mindset was so pervasive that every time I made a mistake I just felt worse and worse and worse and falsely believed that I could not be accepted into Christ’s grace because I kept screwing up. This rejection of God’s word – particularly the promises of Jesus Christ to redeem all who come to Him – plagued me and my faith for decades.

Until a few years ago a friend managed to get me to admit that what I was believing and telling myself was not only not true, but there was no doctrinal foundation for it. Instead they are the lies Satan has been trying to convince me of for most of my life.

The truth is that Jesus can – and will – save even me. The truth is Jesus has already gone through the trouble to save even me. The truth is that He will go to any lengths to save anyone whom He loves and who loves Him. And the truth is that perfectionism in the Gospel context is a flat out rejection of Jesus Christ and His grace and atonement.

The road through recovery from decades of false beliefs has not been easy – and truthfully is still ongoing. But it has been emancipating and joyful as I remind myself frequently that I am a son of God, that He loves me, that Jesus loves me, and that He has saved me! He truly has already paid the price!

With this shift in my thinking and internalized beliefs the word “wo” is describing my life less and less, and I can truly say there is peace and happiness and love in accepting God’s word that cannot be found when we reject it.

Passage #2

. . . and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the law which ye shall do.

2 Nephi 26:1

Precept #2

Let the Savior’s teachings be the law by which you live and which governs your decision-making.

I have spent most of my life trying to understand God’s word, mostly so that I could serve Him diligently and so I could be a good husband and father. (Also so I could stand up to people who seek to undermine or faith – but that’s a story for another time.) I have tried taking the things I have learned from the scriptures – from Christ’s teachings – to be the law, or set of standards and guides, by which I am governed. Marriage and fatherhood show me every single day just how far I actually have to go. After a lifetime of striving to be close to the Spirit and to have a sound understanding of gospel principles I am finding out just how many of the qualities of Christ I actually have failed to develop. I am seeing more and more just how imperfect I am at understanding, believing, and following His law.

There is so far for me to go and writing this post reminds me how important it is to refocus myself each and every day on making His word my law.

Passage #3

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

2 Nephi 29:8

Precept #3

Don’t complain because God is giving you more of His words.

I can’t begin to express the impact that listening to the continuing word of God has had on my life. From conference talks, to each book of Scripture, to devotional, fireside, and other conference addresses, to the words and ideas shared by other faithful Christians and even scholars my life and faith have been extremely blessed, strengthened, and grown as a result of listening for and accepting all the words of God to me no matter where they come from or when. And the words I receive directly from Him by and through the voice of the Spirit are the ones I seek for the most, the ones I hunger to receive more than any other. God has not stopped speaking, and listening for His voice and to His word unlocks the blessings of eternity.

Passage #4

Forasmuch as this people draw near unto me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men –

2 Nephi 27:25

Precept #4

Let God – not other people – define how you revere and worship Him. Then do so with all your soul, not just your lips.

For most of my life I believed that the Church is the only true church on the earth and because of that presented the only correct way to worship God.

As I have matured I have come to understand that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is indeed the church of Jesus Christ and, “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth,” (see Doctrine and Covenants 1:30) but that it presents only one of an infinite number of ways we could choose to worship God. Gone are the days of my devotion to the Church because of the Church. They have been replaced by days of devotion because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the motivation and nothing else.

I have come to learn that our personal salvation and exaltation are more dependent on our relationship with God and Christ than anything else – including which church we happen to belong to.

Don’t get me wrong the Church is necessary, and the covenants we make here are critical for salvation and exaltation. But our covenants are with Them, not with the Church. They saved Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Moses and many, many others without the Church as it exists today – it was only because of and through Their covenants that these people were saved – and They can do the same for me. The Church is simply Their current tool to generally distribute the necessary covenants to all of God’s children and to provide a structure for receiving general revelation for our day.

And so, I work hard each day to turn my worship of God into a direct reflection of my relationship with Them. I try to listen for the Holy Ghost to guide and direct my worship of Them rather than rely only on the proscribed forms of worship provided by other people. And from this work I find strength, peace, and confidence because I am connecting with God and have a relationship with Him and His Son that is growing.

Passage #5

For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off; for the Lord covenanteth with none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel.

2 Nephi 30:2

Precept #5

Repent and believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and make covenants with Him.

Repentance is hard. Particularly when you don’t want to change, or think that you don’t need to change. But I like the point that Brad Wilcox made in his devotional address entitled “His Grace is Sufficient”: no unchanged thing will even want be in God’s presence. It’s not even just that because of our sins we won’t be allowed in. It’s more that because of our sins we won’t feel comfortable being there and won’t even want to stay.

Repentance is so important, because it is the practice of changing ourselves, of letting go of what we think is important and what we think makes us who we are in favor of embracing what God sees in us and wants us to become. Thus the process of repentance is really about becoming comfortable with living with God, of getting used to the process of God changing us so that one day, when we stand before Christ to be changed into Eternal Beings we will be ready and able to accept and embrace the final transformation He will put us through into exalted beings.

As I learn more about repentance and how to do it and why it is so important, even crucial, I find it’s easier and more joyful to even want to do it even if it’s still hard to do sometimes. Repentance – or change through the merits, mercy, and grace of Jesus Christ – can be hard, can hurt – but it can also be joyful and so very rewarding that we wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Bonus Passage

And I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever.

2 Nephi 29:14

Bonus Precept

Don’t fight against God’s word or His people. Be one of them instead.

A number of years ago I began offering a prayer each morning to acknowledge the omniscience and power of God. It was a prayer of praise as well as a reminder to me that God sees everything, nothing can be hidden from Him, that He is perfectly wise and all-knowing, and that Jesus Christ, His Son, is exactly like Him.

Although I am no longer consistently offering this prayer each day, even just thinking about it fills my soul with the same honor, respect, reverence, and peace that it did the very day I started offering it. Reminding myself that God is all-knowing and all-powerful and that I could not hide from Him or from Jesus, brought a peace and reverence and humility that invited Their power and strength in my life as I had never before experienced; and I began to feel what it means to be one of Their people, to be strengthened and sustained by Them, and to be remembered in the covenants They made with the fathers.

Enjoyed this post? Read the original post defining the Abiding Precepts project or the post presenting Russty’s Daily Coat.