Loving God and loving our neighbors is the doctrinal foundation of ministering; home-centered, Church-supported learning; Sabbath-day spiritual worship; and the work of salvation on both sides of the veil. All of these things are based on the divine commandments to love God and to love our neighbors. Can there be anything more basic, more fundamental, and more simple than that?
Living the true, pure, and simple gospel plan will allow us more time to visit the widows, widowers, orphans, lonely, sick, and poor. We will find peace, joy, and happiness in our life when serving the Lord and our neighbors.
The Sabbath-day adjustments that emphasize home-centered, Church-supported gospel learning and studying are an opportunity to renew our spirit and our devotion to God within the walls of our homes. What could possibly be more simple, basic, and profound? Brothers and sisters, can you see that learning and teaching the gospel in our families is an important way to find joy and happiness in our lives?
Over the past several years a lot has changed in the church. Ministering has replaced home and visiting teaching. Come Follow Me has replaced a variety of different lesson plans. The new Children and Youth program has replaced scouting and personal progress. A new focus on home-centered, church supported worship has replaced old Sunday meeting schedule with a new schedule that invites us to focus more on living the gospel in our homes as part of our daily lives.
As I have participated in these various changes, I have had the feeling that all of these changes have been made to help us increase the quality of our personal worship. They invite each of us to live in a way that will bring the Spirit and blessings of the gospel into our lives more fully.
Today I want to write about why this is so important. What does it mean to worship? How can our personal worship bring the power of the gospel into our lives?
A Story
I have a favorite story that comes to mind every time I think about personal worship.
A tourist visiting England’s Eton College asked the gardener how he got the lawns so perfect. “That’s easy,” he replied, “You just brush off the dew every morning, mow them every other day, and roll them once a week.”
“Is that all?” asked the tourist.
“Absolutely,” replied the gardener. “Do that for 500 years and you’ll have a nice lawn, too.”.
What I love about this short story is the way it teaches the truth that by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. More importantly, it is by consistently doing the small and simple things that great things are brought to pass in our lives.
Just like a lawn or a garden, our testimonies need constant cultivation and upkeep. Our personal holiness and conversion to the gospel are the natural result of our ongoing efforts to live the gospel each day.
To gain these blessings we must be diligent in doing the things the Lord has commanded us to do.
Knowing The Why
The scriptures teach us that Satan desires to lead people into darkness. His every effort is to shut out the light and truth of Jesus Christ and His gospel. As Lehi taught his children, the devil “seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” If Heavenly Father’s “work and … glory” is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of [men and women],” Lucifer’s “work” is to bring to pass the misery and endless woe of God’s children. Sin and transgression dim the Light of Christ in our lives. That is why our quest is to bask in the Light of Christ, which brings peace, joy, and happiness.
We were all sent to this world to gain experience and to have the opportunity to learn and grow. The purpose of our being here is to allow us to learn how to become more like our Heavenly Father.
The Savior came to earth to teach us the path we need to follow to become perfect. He performed the redemptive acts of the Atonement to give each of us the opportunity to repent of our sins and overcome our weaknesses so that we can become perfect.
None of us are perfect. We all need to repent and follow the commandments if we are to become perfect. Through the gift of the Atonement we each have the opportunity to try again when we stumble. We can be forgiven of our sins and shortcomings. We can, step by step, become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is the purpose of this life and the great blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Power of Personal Worship
How do we hallow the Sabbath day? In my much younger years, I studied the work of others who had compiled lists of things to do and things not to do on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until later that I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, “What sign do I want to give to God?” That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear.
Have you ever felt like you were doing all the things we are taught to do in the gospel, but not seeing the promised rewards? Maybe you attend church, read your scriptures and pray, but don’t feel like you have the Spirit in your life like you would like. Maybe you find that you feel burdened by responsibilities rather than blessed by the opportunities to serve. It could be that you attend the temple, but don’t feel the peace that you expect.
All of these actions are acts of personal worship. If you have wondered why your personal worship has not yielded the results you were hoping for, you are not alone. Many of us desire to have better, more impactful experiences with our personal worship. So how do we do that? How can we make personal worship a powerful tool for bringing the Spirit into our lives and drawing us closer to our Heavenly Father?
As Russell M. Nelson taught above, for many of us we often get caught in the trap of viewing the gospel and our worship as a list of things to do or avoid. If you have ever done this, you probably know that this often leads to stress, uncertainty and frustration.
Elder Nelson teaches us that a better way is to ask the question “What sign do I want to give to God?”. This question should be at the center of our personal worship. When we truly seek to show God, through our actions, that we love Him and are seeking to follow Him, we can unlock the power of the gospel in our lives.
Doing The Work
My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.
I recently heard something that made me laugh, but which highlights a trap we all sometimes fall in. I was watching a talk show where they were taking questions from audience members. Someone wrote in a question that went something like this:
“I want to learn to be an expert piano player, what is the quickest way I can do that without having to practice?”.
When we hear that most of us are struck immediately by the absurdity of the question. The answer of course is that there is no way to become an expert piano player without practice.
It is the same with building a testimony, gaining power in the priesthood, and becoming more charitable. Each of us build those, and many other attributes through practice. Daily. Consistent. Practice.
We must practice if we are to learn a skill like playing the piano and we must do the spiritual work to build our testimonies and spiritual power.
The Power of Consistency
In the New Testament, the Savior teaches the parable of the ten virgins. If you remember the story, it goes something like this: The Bridegroom (Christ) announces that it is time for the wedding feast. It is dark outside, so the ten virgins need to use lamps to light their way to the wedding feast. Five of the virgins have oil for their lamps and five do not.
The five virgins who need oil try to borrow some from the other five, who cannot share. The prepared virgins go to the wedding and the other five miss the wedding feast because they arrive too late.
Elder David A. Bednar taught us a little about this parable. He said:
Were the five wise virgins selfish and unwilling to share, or were they indicating correctly that the oil of conversion cannot be borrowed? Can the spiritual strength that results from consistent obedience to the commandments be given to another person? Can the knowledge obtained through diligent study and pondering of the scriptures be conveyed to one who is in need? Can the peace the gospel brings to a faithful Latter-day Saint be transferred to an individual experiencing adversity or great challenge? The clear answer to each of these questions is no.
As the wise virgins emphasized properly, each of us must “buy for ourselves.” These inspired women were not describing a business transaction; rather, they were emphasizing our individual responsibility to keep our lamp of testimony burning and to obtain an ample supply of the oil of conversion. This precious oil is acquired one drop at a time—“line upon line [and] precept upon precept” (2 Nephi 28:30), patiently and persistently. No shortcut is available; no last-minute flurry of preparation is possible.
The way we keep our lamps filled with oil is by consistently doing the work of filling them.
True power of testimony, power in the priesthood, and charity are all attributes that must be cultivated over time. They cannot be created last minute in desperation.
Seeking God’s Power
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
It is important to remember that personal worship does not allow us to produce for ourselves the great blessings that the Lord has promised to everyone who diligently seeks Him. Rather, personal worship helps us to open our hearts to receiving the gifts that a loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have prepared for each of us.
Forgiveness, Faith, Hope, Charity, and a host of other blessings can be ours when we humbly strive to follow the commandments, repent, and follow do our best to follow the Savior.
Participating in personal worship helps us to come unto Christ with humility and open hearts. When we follow the Lord in this way, it allows Him to change our hearts. He can purify us. He can give us the gifts of Faith, Hope and Charity. We have to be willing to receive those gifts, and personal worship helps us to open our hearts to those blessings.
Transformations Or Transactions?
The aim of all gospel learning and teaching is to deepen our conversion and help us become more like Jesus Christ. For this reason, when we study the gospel, we’re not just looking for new information; we want to become a “new creature” (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This means relying on Christ to change our hearts, our views, our actions, and our very natures.
But the kind of gospel learning that strengthens our faith and leads to the miraculous change of conversion doesn’t happen all at once. It extends beyond a classroom into an individual’s heart and home. It requires consistent, daily efforts to understand and live the gospel. True conversion requires the influence of the Holy Ghost.
In a recent church meeting, one of the speakers shared an insight on how our personal worship can be used to help us open our hearts to the Holy Ghost. He asked the question: What can you do to make the taking of the Sacrament transformational instead of transactional?
Often times we view the things we do from the perspective of a transaction. When something is a transaction, we view it is an exchange. We do an action to get a given reward. For example, we give our time to an employer so they will give us a paycheck.
When something is transformational, we view it as an opportunity. We do an action to allow it to change us. For example, we might serve someone because we truly care for them and want to help them.
Most things in life can be both transactional and transformational. We might do our job only for the paycheck, or we may truly believe that what we do helps people. Sometimes we serve others only out of a sense of obligation and not because we truly want to be more like Jesus Christ.
We can determine whether an activity will be transactional or transformational by how willing we are to let the activity change us.
When we participate in personal worship, we should strive to let those activities be transformational in our lives. Studying the scriptures, honoring the Sabbath, ministering and serving in the temple all have the power to be change us in profound ways.
By opening our hearts to the Holy Ghost and seeking to let the Savior change our hearts, we can enable the transformational power of personal worship in our lives.
Conclusion
Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance—of doing and being a little better each day. When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!
The Lord does not expect perfection from us at this point. … But He does expect us to become increasingly pure. Daily repentance is the pathway to purity.
It is important to remember that as we do our best to consistently draw nearer to the Savior, He will bless us. While perfection is our ultimate goal, it is not an immediate requirement.
Each and every day we can repent and try to be a little better. As we do so, we will have the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives. We will step by step and line by line grow to become more like Jesus Christ.
When we approach this journey with faith and diligence and allow our worship to transform us, we will truly gain the power of the gospel in our lives.
Ready To Be Better?
If you want to overcome your weaknesses and draw closer to Jesus Christ, check out my free guide called: “Daily Closer to Jesus Christ Checklist”