God told Moses "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39)
God's purpose - the thing He must do to progress (it's an eternal law: no progression means stagnation, if God were stagnant, He wouldn't BE God!) and receive more glory is to bring to pass - make it happen - the immortality and eternal life of mankind...humankind....His children.
God has a PLAN to accomplish that. His PLAN includes several things: 1. Agency or the freedom to choose right from wrong, left from right, yes from no, happiness from sadness.... ; 2. life on this earth where we can learn (or not), have trials & endure them (or not), overcome our natural instincts (or not), make choices (or not - which is still a choice if you think about it!)...; and 3. the Atonement of Christ which provides redemption for those who choose to follow the teachings found in the Gospel and accept Christ as their Savior and Redeemer.... These are the 3 major parts of God's PLAN.
Within that PLAN, and because he loves us, there is a plan that He has for each individual, each of US... this plan is a (for lack of a better metaphor) "map" of experiences, opportunities, challenges, and blessings prepared for each of us that we can/will have that can bring us to a point where God's PLAN can take effect in our lives.
As I mentioned before, part of God's PLAN requires that we experience the events in our personal plan and through those experiences choose to "Come Unto Him"... or not. Some of us come to one of those experiences/opportunities/challenges and choose to ignore God, turn away from Him, or outright reject Him. WHY?
Lehi had a vision in which he saw a "mist of darkness" that existed in the world and blinded men's eyes and hearts to the eternal world and blessings around them. (see 1 Nephi 8:23, or better yet, read the whole chapter! :D ) What could it be that would blind not only the eyes, but the hearts and minds of God's children so they can't see His hand in their lives? I've got a few ideas - these come from my own personal experiences, you may know of others. (I'd like to hear about them - leave me a comment!)
Addiction - Oh wow - drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography... really ANYTHING that we can become addicted to can dull our hearts and minds so we can't hear the quiet whisperings of the Spirit. The addiction becomes all powerful, all encompassing and it drowns out everything else. Filling that craving - that "need" becomes the be all and end all of our daily existence. There's no time or place for anything that doesn't give us that "high".
Previous hurts - Another "oh yeah!" - Man, someone does something to you, promises you something, promises that they'll love you, take care of you, be there for you, and then they break that promise... Yeah, it hurts. Anything like that does. If it happens enough times, you just can't bring yourself to trust anyone that tells you the same things again, even if THIS one really means it! That happens with God all the time. It's hard to believe He will love you, take care of you, always be there for you, forgive you, show mercy, if you've constantly been shafted by others telling you the same thing.
"Traditions of the fathers" - This is one of those kind of "mormon" phrases, but it simply means that it's the things our ancestors have "always said" or "always done" that have been passed down for generation after generation. Kind of like those old wives tales about using butter for burns, tossing salt over your shoulder, if you have heartburn the baby will have hair.... You know the kind of thing I mean. Those things are kind of silly, but you know, there are other "traditions" that are passed down - families who are Baptist/Methodist/Catholic... whatever... just because their family has ALWAYS been Baptist/Methodist/Catholic.... whatever.... We have a tendency to accept whatever our mother/father/grandmother/grandfather/aunt/uncle/sister/brother/best friend... says about any topic as "gospel truth" instead of finding out on our own, praying about it, and discovering the truth for ourselves. It's a human thing, but it can cause us to wander off into confusion and spiritual darkness.
False teachings - Even during the time of the apostles (Acts 20:29, 1 Cor. 11:18, 2 Tim. 1:15, and many more!) false teachings and practices were creeping into the various branches of the church. The apostles struggled with that from nearly the time of the Savior's Ascension. It hasn't changed in the 2000+ years since. Some of those false teachings are things that have just snuck in there and been repeated over and over so many times that they've gotten the "shine" of truth to them (see the "traditions of the fathers" up above!). Some of those falsehoods are being taught by men (and women!) who seek power and authority over God's children. Either way, they are deadly to the soul.
Pride - Which one of us hasn't decided on occasion that we know better, that we know more, that we are better or have more? Which of us hasn't struggled with that evil "demon" Pride? Pride makes us do a lot of stupid things, including rejecting truths that contradict our dearly held ideas and preconceptions. (I've been horrible about that. I've struggled time and time again when my kids end up teaching me what a fool I've been in different situations!) Not only does pride damage the tender spirit on its own, but it leads to other horrible things like...
Rebellion - Oh yeah. I know I'VE been rebellious. How about you? You know what I'm talking about... those times you should really be doing something (or not), making a certain choice (or not), and you say.. "I DON'T WANT TO!!!!!" Oh yeah - you know you've done it. We ALL have. Nothing steers us off of God's PLAN (or his plan!!!) faster than rebellion. It is, by definition, choosing our own way, knowing we should be choosing God's way.
There's a common theme in all those reasons I mentioned why we turn away from God's PLAN and reject His plan in our lives: It's CHOICE - our ability to choose what we're going to do.
I have a question: If we can choose to reject God, His PLAN/plan, and the blessings He wants to provide us with.... can we choose to turn BACK to Him, accept His PLAN/plan in our lives, and receive the blessings He has in store for us?
ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY! (Didn't mean to shout, but its such an awesome thing to me!)
YES! We CAN choose to let go of the things that keep us from coming to God. We CAN reject false teachings. We CAN get past the hurts we've experienced. We CAN overcome the addictions that hold us prisoner. We CAN choose to turn back to Him and walk in His ways.
WE CAN COME TO HIM!
We are the only thing that's stopping us. We are the only ones who can prevent ourselves from receiving salvation, glory, exaltation, and eternal life with our Father in Heaven.
WE CAN CHOOSE!!!!
And I thank Heaven for that Gift!
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