Monday, September 2, 2013

Giving Up Our Favorite Sin

Today I read Isaiah 30, we skipped chapter 29 as it is recorded in its entirety in 2 Nephi.  Chapter 30 is about the scattering of Israel.  I often wonder if the Pharisees of Jesus' time dismissed Isaiah as a false prophet because they didn't want to believe his words.  I know the Nephites would always dismiss the true prophets of God because they spoke the harsh truth and would embrace the false prophets because they liked what they were teaching.  I guess it's hard to throw off that natural man who wants to believe everything is hunky dory and listen to the hard truth about ourselves.  Even though if we were honest with ourselves we know what we are doing wrong and what our challenges are.  So why do we resist changing so much? 

The answer of course is obvious, the natural man is an enemy to God.  Which means we are in opposition to God when we are in our natural state.  We have to decide that we don't like the way we are and that we want to change.  Only God and the Atonement of Christ can help us change.  But we have to decide it is what we want.  We have to give up our favorite sin, and that can be very hard.  It's our favorite for a reason.  But when we decide we want to be like God more than we want our favorite sin, that is when we can change for the better and can allow the Atonement into our lives.  It's a wonderful feeling indeed.  Until tomorrow.

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