Today I read 2 Peter 2 and I was struck by a phrase as I was reading. It said that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. That struck me as really profound. We know that temptations come from the destroyer, but that not all temptations are bad. In fact without them we would find it difficult to grow. During the administration of the sacrament, I will typically either read my scriptures or I might read the newest Ensign on my phone. Today I was reading an article in the January 2012 Ensign about a man who had become addicted to alcohol and about his struggle to overcome this addiction. He mentioned that it was impossible to overcome the problem on his own. He had to turn to Heavenly Father.
It doesn't always seem like it, but Heavenly Father wants us to succeed and to become better. But He knows that is impossible and will not happen unless we are helped and given the proper guidance and help along the way. I am reminded of a story that President Gordon B. Hinckley once told of a tree that he planted. He neglected to tie it to a guy wire and a result it grew in a very peculiar manner and one day many years later he noticed that it would die unless it was corrected and he was forced to prune it back so severely to start over that he worried for awhile that he might have killed the poor tree. We are like that tree. If we start off correct and are given the proper expectations and the right guidance with our parents and loved ones to hold us back and help us learn temperance, we will grow properly. However, if we are allowed to grow and be crazy and have no discipline and just do as we see fit, then when we grow up we are going to hit a wall one day and essentially have to start over. And when that happens, just like with President Hinckley, it is not pretty!
But if we will turn to Heavenly Father in our hour of need, He can help us. We all have our own trial and weaknesses that we have come to earth to overcome. For some of us it's alcohol, for others stealing, for others pornography and the list goes on and on. We are all different and it does not good at all to compare sins with each other. What good does it do to look at someone and think that you don't have that problem so why do they? The person you are looking at comparing yourself to probably doesn't have the same challenges that you do either. They probably think that your trials are easy and would trade you in a heartbeat. But that is exactly why they are your trials and not the other persons. Moroni tells us in the book of Ether that we are given trials to turn us to God. The idea is that we cannot overcome them on our own and so we are meant to turn to God in all humility so hat we can get His help. I know in my life my personal trials required nothing less than the intervention of God to correct. If He hadn't and I had not wanted Him to, I'd still have them, there is not a doubt in my mind.
When we turn to Him who created us, He can deliver us from our temptations just as Peter said. We will be able to become better men and women and will have the Spirit in our lives in more abundance. When we have the Spirit in our lives in greater abundance, it makes it easier to resist temptation. The choice really is ours, but it seems to me that there really only is one choice, turn to Him who knows us best and can help us the most. Until tomorrow.
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