Understanding the Things of God

Today I read 1 Corinthians 2. This chapter mainly consists of Paul talking about how if we want to understand the things of God, we have to be spiritually minded. Paul teaches that no man can know the things of God except he has the spirit of God. This is because, like we have talked about many times before, the natural man is an enemy to God and all things spiritual. I have wondered before why some people seem to have a propensity for things of the spirit and will humble themselves rather than be compelled to be humble. I am quite confident that it has something to do with how we behaved ourselves in the pre-earth life and how obedient we were to the commandments of God.

The majority of people fall into the category of needing to be compelled to be humble. We have to have something bad happen to us to shake us up. Like September 11, 2001, that really got the nation to come together and to turn to God. It put everything on hold for over a week, even sports! But within a month, the majority of the nation had forgotten about God again, attendance at churches across the nation started to dwindle again and people only focused on the outrage part. There were a few that it was enough of a wake up call that they truly did humble themselves and turned to God. And there were those who were already humble of their own accord who turned to God more completely. But it is a sad fact throughout history and the scriptures that only times of calamity cause people to turn to God. When things are going well, most people forget about God and don't give Him much thought at all. It's human nature for most. But when we have truly humbled ourselves and had a change of heart like Alma says, then we become a changed creature. And like Paul says in this chapter, if we want to understand the things of God, we have to have that change of heart and have the spirit of the Lord to be with us.

Ultimately, like everything else pretty much, if we want to better understand the things of the Spirit, then we have to allow the Spirit to change who we are and become a better man/woman. It's ultimately up to us and what we want out of life, both this one and the next one. If we are fine with the terrestrial kingdom and being separated from our family then we only need to perform the ordinances necessary for that kingdom and don't need to keep changing. However, if our goal is to be an eternal family and become like God is, then we need to start that process now, without delay and live the kind of life that God would live if He were on the earth to the best of our ability. God is merciful, He will grant us our desires, even if we don't realize that those are our desires. We need to be sure of what we want and that we are working towards getting those desires. Until tomorrow.