My Grandma shared with me something that I needed to hear. She said, "We tend to think that ME + MORE = CHRISTLIKE. We believe that it is up to us to change and if we work hard enough, do more, be more, we could actually be more Christlike." I think that this is something that can really bring you down. We need to understand that we don't have to be something that we are not to be more Christlike. What we have to do is make space for Christ in our lives. I think that having faith is trusting in Christ enough to take things out of your own hands and turning it over to Christ. Christ has the power to change us and do anything He wants through us. We just have to trust Him enough.

There is a scripture in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." I believe that this is true but I think that there is a caveat. There is no temptation that we cannot handle without Christ. If we try our very hardest to overcome every temptation we will still fall short. We need Christ to help us.

Overall, being like Christ is not just trying harder. It is taking a step back and trusting Christ. Believe in yourself and in Christ. Christ will change you and help you accomplish things that you never could think possible. I think that we all want to improve and be better than we are now. However, just trying harder doesn't always work. We need to be patient and trust in Christ to move you there.

God's view on prayer is profound. Jesus taught "your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." However, God still commands us to pray. He already knows what we will pray for. He knows how best to help us. He knows our needs way better than we ourselves even know. So why does he command us to pray?

The Bible Dictionary says that "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence." When we pray, we should not try to convince God to do what we ask of him. We are not trying to show him that we deserve the blessings we are asking for. We are not trying to check off a box on our list of things to do. We are trying to join our will with our Father's. And we know that God's will isn't changing so we are the ones that need to be changing. This is why two crucial aspects of prayer are humility and listening. Christ is our perfect example of this. In the Garden of Gethsemane, as he was feeling the weight of all the sins of the the world, he cried out "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." At this unimaginable moment our Savior turned to prayer. He poured out his soul to God and his soul was filled with humility. His prayer allowed him to be able to turn his will over to God's.

Our prayers need to be the same. We need to bare our souls before God. We cannot hide. This means we need to remove our pride and be filled with humility. An important part of humility is not always asking for things that we need or want, but asking God what he needs from us. Once we are humble we need to listen. God answers our prayers in different ways. We need to take time after our prayers to listen. As we pray humbly and listen to the promptings we receive, our desires will begin to correspond with God's desires for us. We will have a closer relationship with our Father and we will be much happier.

In a recent General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Mark L. Pace asked a question. "How can the attacks of the adversary be increasing exponentially while at the same time the influence of the adversary is actually decreasing?" It is a dangerous time that we live in today. The adversary has the whole world gripped with his chains. However, this does not mean that things are worse than ever. President Russell M. Nelson has said, "The adversary is increasing his attacks on faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate. To survive spiritually we need counterstrategies and proactive plans."

The counterstrategy is studying the scriptures in our homes. We each need individual study and group study. The Lord promises that by doing this, the adversary will have less influence. I have found this to be true. By studying the scriptures more diligently, I have been able to feel the Spirit of the Lord more in my life and I have noticed that I have been more willing to serve those around me. One interesting thing about this promise is that it affects everyone in your home. My roommates and I have tried to study the scriptures together at least once a week and it has made a huge difference. I have one roommate that is struggling with a lot of things in his life at the moment. He can rarely make it to our scripture studies. However, as we have increased our efforts as roommates, things in his life have been improving. I know that diligent scripture study can reduce the power of the adversary for you and everyone in your homes.

This week the idea of destiny has been on my mind. I read a scripture in Ephesians that caused me to ponder. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.... In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated." Ephesians 1:5 & 11. What does predestination mean? Does it mean that it does not matter what we do? Does it mean that it doesn't matter how hard we try? Do our choices even matter?

I think that we all have a destiny. I believe that God has great and mighty plans for all of us. However, I do not think that the word destiny always means that it will be handed to us no matter what we do. We have the choice to live up to our destiny or to avoid our destiny.

When I think of destiny, one of the things that comes to my mind is the movie Kung Fu Panda. It is a great movie that really highlights what it means to be destined for something great. In the movie, Po, a panda with dreams of being a kung fu master is told that he is destined to be the dragon warrior and the greatest kung fu warrior of all time. In the movie there is a scroll that is said will turn whoever reads it into the dragon warrior. When Po finally reads the scroll he realizes that it is blank. Po learns that his destiny is not handed to him but that it was inside of him all along. Po goes on the defeat his enemy and he does become the greatest warrior of all time. Just like Po, our destiny cannot be handed to us in scroll. Instead, it is inside of us. We are all destined for greatness. We just have to realize the wonderful potential inside of all of us.

In an article called, Eclipse of God: Studies in the Relation between Religion and Philosophy, Martin Buber says, "Faith in the reality of God is increased more by experiencing God than explaining God." Hopefully what I have to say will help to you to learn to experience God. Recently I had a study group with some friends. One person really brought the Spirit into the meeting. She shared many insights and thoughts from her own personal study of the scriptures. Towards the end of the meeting, another friend said that she hasn't felt the Spirit in her reading of the scriptures like this for over a month and asked the first friend how she was able to find so many personal insights from the scriptures. The first friend humbly stated that she had started reading her scriptures first thing in the morning after breakfast. She also stated that she had recently varied her approach to something that fit more for her in her life.

I too was amazed by the Spirit she brought to that scripture study. She was explaining things about God, but more importantly, I was experiencing God in that moment. My faith was increased because of her example. We can sometimes get caught in a cycle where we are reading the scriptures without really experiencing God. If this is the case, I suggest switching things around. Cater your scripture study so that it matches more with where you are in life. Pray for inspiration on how to feel the Spirit more in your life. If you feel that you have not had a personal experience with God or you feel like it has been a while, have the faith to reach out to Him. He will answer your prayers and will allow you to feel His love.

In a recent devotional to the students of Brigham Young University President Russell M. Nelson, the prophet for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said, "My dear young friends, there is always a way back.  Jesus Christ (and His gospel) is the way.  You have not committed any sin so serious that you are beyond the reach of the Savior’s love and atoning grace.  As you take steps to repent and follow God’s laws, you will begin to feel just how much Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son want you back home with Them!"

This quote stood out to me above everything else that was said in the devotional. It was something that I needed to hear. I think that we all have times when we feel that we are not deserving of God's love for us. We feel that we have strayed too far from the path and that we are beyond reach. This is not true. God's love for us is infinite and eternal. I have found that there are daily and almost hourly moments when I am feeling like I am not measuring up. There are ways to counter this feeling.

First take time to feel God's love for yourself. We can do this by praying to Him and asking Him to let us feel His love. We feel His love when we serve others. Taking time each day to help those around you will bring you closer to God. Focus on those who are close to you like your family, friends, and roommates. Second, after you have taken time to feel God's love, you need constant reminders. This is why we attend church each week, read our scriptures daily, and pray often.

There will always be times when we feel unworthy of God's love. However, I know that God does love us more than we can comprehend. There is nothing that we can do to cause God not to love us. If we continue to take the time and effort to feel God's love in our life, He will always show His love for us.

The Last Days

The last days has been something that has been on my mind a lot lately. I have had discussions with my family and friends. A lot of the reason why it has been on my mind came from a talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Christians look forward to the last days. We are taught that when Christ comes there will be a millennium of peace. Oppression, injustice, poverty, and suffering will all vanish. The second coming is a day that will bring tremendous joy to the children of God.

There are many prophecies that can cause us to fear the last days. The scriptures say that in the last days there will be "Men's hearts failing them for fear... for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." However, I do not think that we need to fear the last days. The former Anglican Bishop of Durham, Dr. N. T. Wright said, "It is not ultimately a chaos; that when we do justice in the present we are not whistling in the dark, trying to shore up a building that will ultimately collapse, or to fix a car which is actually bound for the scrap-heap."

The last days will be full of many great and terrible events. However, we are on the winning side of the battle. The Second Coming is near and we need to prepare for it. Every bit of good that we do to help alleviate the poverty and suffering in the world is part of the winning battle. Instead of feeling like the world is collapsing, we need to understand that, in many aspects, the world is doing better than it has ever been. People are living longer and happier lives with less oppression and more equality than ever before. There is still much to do, but I feel optimistic about where we are and I know that we are nearing a thousand years of peace.

Faith to Succeed

One of the most famous scriptures for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints comes from the very beginning of The Book of Mormon. A prophet named Lehi is asked to send his sons on a seemingly impossible task of retrieving a record from a very rich man that does not want to give up the record. When Lehi asks his sons to do this, some of them complain but Nephi says, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” (1 Nephi 3:7) After several failed attempts, the brothers are ready to quit and go home but Nephi still presses forward. Eventually God prepared a way for them to succeed and they were able to accomplish the impossible task.

To me this is a perfect example of faith. One of the most important parts of faith is that we cannot just have the faith to try but we must have the faith to succeed. God will never ask anything of us that we are not capable of doing. Lehi and Nephi are amazing examples of the this kind of faith. As Lehi’s wife is waiting for her sons to return Lehi comforts her by saying, “But behold, I have obtained a land of promise.” (1 Nephi 5:5) This was before he had acutually reached the land of promise. However, he had so much faith in God that he knew that he would gain that land of promise.

Nephi and Lehi not only had the faith to try to accomplish the difficult tasks that were laid in front of them, they had faith to the point that they knew that God would make it possible. In my life, I am easily disheartened by the failure that I have in keeping the commandments. I need to look to the examples of Nephi and Lehi and realize that it is ok to fail and as long as I have faith and keep trying I will succeed. I hope that we can all develop this level of faith and trust in God.