But Alma doesn’t let us off the hook that easily. He continues, “I say unto you, if ye
are not ye are not prepared to meet God.” Since this life is the time for us to prepare to meet God (Alma
34:32), pride should be something that concerns us. Alma’s question is relevant.
What is pride?
How are we stripped of it?
Why is it such a problem that we aren’t prepared to return
to God with it?
Pride is multi-faceted. One of the problems with pride is that it causes us to be
blinded to truth—things as they really are. Goliath, the turkey, is a good example of being blinded by
pride. Once blinded to truth we
are easily led astray into forbidden paths and to destruction. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) One
of the consistent messages and warnings of the Book of Mormon is against
pride. Pride destroys not only
individuals but groups as well. It led to the downfall of the Nephites. It is leading to the downfall of our
nation.
How do we avoid this catastrophe in our own lives? Nephi provides a key, “And I said unto
them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken [listen and obey]
unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish;
neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower
them unto blindness to lead them
away to destruction.” (1 Ne. 15:24)
One of the keys to being stripped of pride is to receive the
word of God. Where do we receive
that? The scriptures,
obviously. Where else? In the temple.
The way we view and judge things is so skewed from our limited
vantage point in mortality. One of
the purposes of the temple is to help us gain perspective.
Consider the counsel of the Savior to his servant who was
over the branch of the church in Laodicea. Here is church leader who by all external appearances is
‘successful’. He is wealthy,
content with his life, and called to serve in a leadership position. Members of his congregation might have
looked at him and thought, ‘now there’s a guy that has it all together’.
But listen to how the Savior views this man. ‘Thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’. He is counseled to acquire treasure in
heaven, to be clothed, and to anoint his eyes that he might see. (Rev. 3:14-19)
Consider further this reminder from John: ‘But the anointing
which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man
teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” (1 John
2:27)
Nephi reminds us that angels speak the words of Christ (2
Ne. 32:3) and that the Holy Ghost will show us all things that we should do (2
Ne. 32:5). In addition to the
scriptures and the temple, we need to connect with heaven and receive God’s
word directly in our lives. If we
have questions or don’t understand all of this Nephi tells us to ask and knock
that we might be brought into the light and not perish in the dark (2 Ne. 32:4). We have no excuse for ignorance or blindness in our lives.
President Benson, in his great discourse on pride, identified
enmity as the core of pride.
Enmity towards God and towards our fellow men. He stated that pride is essentially competitive by nature. Emnity means to be in a state of
opposition or hostility. This is
the opposite of the first and second great commandments which are to love God
and our fellowman.
We live in a world filled with pride. It surrounds us and is part of the
cultural smog we breathe in every day.
It is insidious and creeps in everywhere. It is so ‘natural’ to our society that sometimes we are
scarcely aware of it except in extreme cases or examples.
Alma concludes his verse on pride with a sobering
warning. If we are not stripped of
pride, ‘Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at
hand and such an one hath not eternal life.’ (Alma 5:28) Why is this so?
While there are many facets of pride (and we will discuss
some of these in the days to come) the key feature is MY will as opposed to THY
will. Pride causes us to seek our
own desires over what the Lord wants for us.
The Savior is our example. He is, as Joseph Smith taught in the Lectures on Faith, the
prototype of the saved man.
What did he do? Listen to
how he defines his identity. “I
have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning” (3 Ne.
11:11) And again, “I am Jesus Christ; I came by the will of the Father, and I do
his will” (D&C 19:24) “And this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that
I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me”
(3 Ne. 27:13)
Here is humility.
Here is humility.
Pride leads into many forbidden paths where all is lost (1
Ne. 8:28). There is only one path
that leads back to God. He wants
to lead us along this one true path.
But we cannot follow it unless we, like the Savior, seek His will.
We can't return to God with pride. Unless we lay it aside we won't follow the path that will bring us back to him.
Pride is represented by the great and spacious
building. Eventually it will fall.
(1 Ne. 11:36). One way or another all will eventually be stripped of pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment