Come Unto Jesus: By Sincere Repentance and Forgiveness

The topic of repentance and forgiveness has been on my mind a lot lately. It seems each time I pray to know what to share I get answers everywhere and for that I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for answering my prayers.

Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel and is essential to our temporal and eternal happiness. It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world. It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments.

This morning I read Alma 36 It's the story of Alma(the younger) telling his son Helaman about his "conversion" story. Alma was a rebellious man who was trying to turn people away from the church. He is said to have been one of the vilest of sinners! An Angel appeared to him and told him, " If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God." He fell to the ground for 3 days without being able to speak or use his limbs.

He said, "But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments."

Alma remembers his father, Alma, who was a prophet telling him of the coming of Jesus Christ, the one who would atone for the sins of the world. "Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!"

HOW AMAZING IS THAT!!! His joy was as much as his pain after his repentance!

When I was 3 years old I was at a True Value store with my mom and they had a huge barrel of bubble gum and I love bubble gum. I asked my mom if I could have a piece and she said no. When she wasn't watching I took 2 pieces. My mom got her stuff and we left. At the time we had a van and I have 2 siblings so we all could fit on the one seat and we never sat in the back unless we were fighting or something. Well I went straight to the back seat and as a 3 year old having a piece of bubble gum was very noticeable. My mom said, "Sister Carson what do you have?" I said, "Nothing Mom." She told me to get out of the van and we went back inside and I had to give them a dime to pay for my bubble gum and tell them sorry I took it. We drove home and I remember sitting on my bunk bed with my mom. She explained to me that what I had done was wrong and that I needed to pray and ask Heavenly Father to forgive me. Though it was a simple little thing it has had a huge impact on me. I'm grateful for a loving mother who taught me the gospel. She helped me to know that repentance and forgiveness are importance principles of the gospel that bring me closer to my Heavenly Father.

Coming Unto Jesus: By Having Faith in Him

I've been thinking about what I wanted to post on and decided to take it to the basics. Faith. What is faith? The Book of Mormon teaches us it's a hope for things which are not seen, but which are true. Our faith must be centered on Jesus Christ.

Faith is a principle of action and power. We can't just believe something and think that we can sit back in our Lay-Z Boy and God will do all the work, we must have faith and then go to work and do our part. It is by faith that we retain a remission of our sins. That right there, is a reason to have faith. Who doesn't want to be forgiven from their sins? I know I do.

 

Faith is a gift, but it must be cultured and sought after. As a child I was always taught that "Faith is like a little seed if planted it will grow." Faith is a gift our Heavenly Father has given us, but we must cultivate it, just as we would a seed. It needs to be watered, fed, receive sunlight daily and it will grow. It needs to be nurtured and cared for, or it will die. The same is our faith it needs to be watered and fed by the good words of God, daily reading The Book of Mormon and the Bible, attending church every Sunday, praying, receiving light from the Son by implementing his atonement in your life and going about doing service. All of these things will help our faith grow.

 

Where there is true faith there are miracles.  One (I have many) of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Ether Chapter 12. It tells of all these miracles that happened because of faith.

• Alma and Amulek caused the prison to tumble
• Nephi and Lehi brought change upon the Lamanites and brought them to baptism
• Three disciples didn't have to taste of death
• Brother of Jared saw the finger of God 

 In verse 6 the prophet Moroni is talking and tell the people about all these miracles and says," And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

This is so important. many of us believe miracle will happen and then we will gain faith from that, but we must first have faith and then the miracles and blessings will come.

Sometimes it's hard to have faith and it requires a lot of just trusting in God. One of the biggest decisions of my life was to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was leaving my family(I'm a huge family girl), a scholarship at college (semester away from my associates degree), work, friends, all the comforts of home to serve my Heavenly Father for 18 months. And though I knew I would be taken care of, it required and still requires so much faith! But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father helps me to have the faith to do hard things and I have seen countless miracles from the time I have spent serving my Heavenly Father.

Coming unto Jesus: By Accessing His Infinite and Eternal Atonement

Have you ever felt like you just want to be better, do more good, or change something about yourself? I know I have and do all the time, constantly trying to improve myself and becoming more like Jesus Christ. A scripture that has really has meant a lot to me lately is Matthew 11:28-30,
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

With the new year and setting goals, I've thought about how I can come closer to my Savior this year. What keeps coming to my mind is Jesus Christ's Atonement. The Atonement consists of Jesus Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, dieing on the cross in Calvary of Golgotha, and his resurrection three days later. Because of that, he overcame physical and spiritual death for each one of us. He over came physical death by being resurrected, which we call the redeeming power of the atonement. It allows us to repent and be forgiven of our sins. 2 Nephi 9:5-9 in the Book of Mormon talks about Jesus Christ overcoming the fall of death and the infinite and eternal atonement Christ suffered.  The enabling power of the atonement gives us strength, comfort, peace, understanding, endurance, determination when we are going through the hard times. It's what we can use each day of our lives to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

I know for me, I want to do everything I can to know my Savior better, to develop that relationship with him. I've used his atonement in so many different ways, to help me feel happy, to get peace during troubled times, to be forgiven of my mistakes, to have the strength to physically push forward, to heal from abuse, to be able to forgive, to love others. Without my Savior I don't know where I would be. I'm so grateful that he loved me and ya'll SOO much that he suffered every pain, affliction, worry, heartache, temptation, sickness, and death so that he can succor his people, that's us! He did that all for us. 

Today I realized that I have used the atonement to bring me peace and all those other emotions, but I've never left my burden at the Lord's feet and given it to him. Part of me has continued to hold onto the hurt, for whatever reason it is, I don't know. But, today as I felt the spirit a scripture came to mind. 3 Nephi 9:13 "....will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" Jesus Christ is asking can I heal you? That is such an amazing thing. He wants to heal us, he wants us to be happy. Are you allowing him into your life?

Is the life you're living worth Christ dying?