You Can Do It Now, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
God intentionally designed life to be hard, so that we would rely on Him and become like Him. His grand plan is for us to have joy, even deep and profound happiness. That happiness is only possible by keeping His commandments and making covenants with Him.
Even so, everyone falls at times in their life and nobody keeps the commandments perfectly. Perfection in the eternal and absolute sense is impossible in this life. None of us will become exactly like Christ in this life, but we can get close.
Additionally, the specific covenants that God established for our benefit are not shallow or superficial. Therefore, if you want to launch out into the deep, make covenants with God and be serious about it.
The fact remains, because the covenants are from God, and are designed to perfect and exalt us, we all still fall short. However, the General Authorities have said that this is the work of God, as a result everyone can meet God’s standard with His help.
Elder Bednar said, “In the strength of the Lord, we can do and endure and overcome all things. In the strength of the Lord and through His grace, I know that you and I can be blessed to accomplish all things.”
Accomplishing all things implies not pursuing the “less worthy endeavors,” because it distracts us from the most important matters. Consequently, you fail to fulfill your potential or realize your divine destiny.
Because everyone falls down, Godly sorrow and humility helps you rise again. President Eyring said humility is a condition of deliverance. He said great challenges and trials may or may not soften your heart and humble you. But faith will.
You rise up through the prophets, because they are God’s mouthpiece and help you succeed not only spiritually but temporally as well.
The apostles are always encouraging and optimistic even though it is their job to call the world to repentance and warn against the consequences of sin and wickedness to individuals and nations. They carry the world on their shoulders.
Godly sorrow, President Uchtdorf said, “leads to conversion and a change of heart. It causes us to hate sin and love goodness. It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of Christ’s love. True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment. Yes, heartfelt regret and true remorse for disobedience are often painful and very important steps in the sacred process of repentance. But when guilt leads to self-loathing or prevents us from rising up again, it is impeding rather than promoting our repentance.”
Repentance demands heartfelt regret and true remorse, because otherwise you would continue doing the sin.
Satan specifically does two things to keep you down.
What are the consequences of being confused about who you really are and what you desire? Satan would love nothing more than to cause you to waste your life away in social media, media in general, video games or a variety of other vain (useless) things. He may not be successful with trapping you in serious sin, but he can gain much ground by taking you out of the fight. That would be a tragedy!
Eternity is a long time to think about what we did or did not do in this life. Furthermore, this life is extremely short, and we are accountable to God for every minute of our lives.
Elder Holland once gave a powerful devotional about the last days. He said we are living in the greatest dispensation of this earth’s existence. We are living in the time when all the prophets from the beginning have seen and looked forward with great anticipation.
Collectively, our calling is to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. What an opportunity!
Wasting our lives away in mindless entertainment is easy. If we really knew who we were and what we could do through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we would not be weighed down by any of the shallow or superficial things of this world. We would have great strength and power.
Satan wins a huge victory if he can get us to hate the commandments and feel they are forced upon us. The commandments are proof of God’s love for us. He gave us commandments to increase our joy and freedom. But, some resent God’s commandments and feel they are restrictive.
God does not give us commandments so He can feel good about Himself or because He needs people to worship Him. Heavenly Father is not a narcissist. God knows what is required to exalt us, and help us achieve the greatest success. He knows the standard that leads to the greatest joy.
God gives us commandments so we can be powerful not so He can be impressive.