joyful shining eyes

Last week was a week of polar opposites, spiritual highs and personal lows. I learned a lot about the tactics of Satan to destroy that which is good. For one, I'm sorry if I offend people with commonplacing study notes. After some thought on the matter, I will continue to post it here, since it is not meant to offend. While attending Spencer's endowment in the temple, God chose to show me some of my faults and strengths. He taught me to not allow Satan to get a hold of my thoughts. After all if we walk up to our covenants and strive to live the commandments to the best of our abilities, Satan cannot have power over us. The key is to not relinquish our free agency with foolish behavior. Hard lesson but hopefully well learned.

Last week I began exploring a broken heart and contrite spirit. How do we get a broken heart and contrite spirit? As with me last week, if we have a spirit of pride or contention, we do not possess a broken heart or contrite spirit. If we follow certain steps, we can obtain this goal--line upon line, precept by precept. When we wander down forbidden paths, we become hardened, making it difficult for the Spirit to influence us. This is how Satan gets his silken threads that become chains wrapped around us.

"Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you--yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he make unto your fathers, O house of Israel. And then shall my revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John be unfolded in the eyes of all the people, Remember, when ye see these things, ye shall know that the time is at hand that they shall be made manifest in very deed." Ether 4:15-16

To "call upon the Father" is one of the steps, perhaps the most important step. Prayer helps us draw closer to the Father, helping us see more clearly the necessity of keeping the commandments. All my book learning cannot make this possible. Only through the Holy Spirit, which speaks directly to the human spirit can we see our unworthiness and need to repent. This causes the scales to be removed from our eyes, allowing our spiritual nakedness to be exposed so to speak. Realization of our lack of character and virtue brings sorrow or a broken heart and contrite spirit.

This does not mean we need to spend our lives in a sorrowful state. Instead the act of repentance brings JOY.

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have JOY. AND the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. AND because that they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hat given." 2 Nephi 2:25-26

This is exciting.....The broken heart and contrite spirit, which leads us to repentance, brings JOY. This is why you see the eyes of believers shining. No this joy is not the counterfeit "fun" peddled by Satan's minions. Alcohol, drugs, elicit sex, stealing, acquisition of wealth through dishonesty, accumulation of possessions, and so on my bring fleeting worldly pleasure at first, but they cannot come close to the deep, lasting, permanent warmth and fulfillment of a redeemed soul, BECAUSE Jesus did come. Jesus did redeem man from the fall. Jesus did make us permanently free. Nobody who writes about this JOY that follows repentance can truly capture the feeling of entering the presence of the Spirit of the Lord. Nobody can adequately tell another person about the sweetness of absorbing this love into their own souls. One can only understand this JOY by seeking a broken heart and contrite spirit, repenting, and opening the eyes of their soul.