The thoughts that are coming to me, flooding through my own journaling and counseling with the Lord this morning, are thoughts about God’s patience and humility—and how long it has taken me to begin to comprehend it.
I know I’ve posted about this before, but this is a message that I could stand to hear and share and repeat every day of my life.
In the Book of Mormon, as Nephi sees a vision of Jehovah’s willingness to humble Himself, and to be born in the time and place and under the circumstances He was born, an angel declares, “Behold the condescension of God!” (1 Nephi 11:26). The word “condescension” could be replaced perfectly with the word “humility.”
Behold the HUMILITY of God! That Jehovah (Jesus Christ) would descend from His stature and glory as a god to rescue us. That He would come back for us. That all three members of the Godhead would humble themselves and spend Their work and glory rescuing and redeeming us!
Behold the patience and the long-suffering of God, or in other words the INFINITE LOVE of God.
And that, I am finally learning, is why I had to be exposed to this imperfect world.
I needed to come to this degree of glory so that I could have the chance to practice patience and compassion and merciful feelings toward this “unworthy creature” that I am—and that everyone else down here on Earth is (with only One exception, of course).
There is not one soul among us that is worthy—no, not one!—except the Holy ONE of Israel. I am so grateful to have that truth fall into place for me. It puts an end to that “rat-race” of trying to be holy. That issue is finally settled, resolved: trying to prove my worthiness is a burden I can lay down at His feet.
The Lord said to me this morning, “Colleen, be still and know that I am God. In other words, have peace, Colleen, and know that I have it all under control. I have it all—including you and your shortfalls and your weaknesses—covered.”
And I saw the truth that I have done absolutely nothing in my life that is outside of His power to atone for and make right. There is nothing that He cannot weave into His and the Father’s perfect purposes.
I have done many things that have added to the burden of others, or in other words, I have provided them with lots of opportunities to practice forgiveness and to exercise patience and compassion toward me, if they will. That is the nature of the state of being that we are in, here in this telestial glory. We are here that we might learn by our own experience what it means to be humble and patient and kind-hearted and gentle and trusting and to have faith in GOD and God alone.
Do you realize how that lets all of us off the hook, so to speak? I don’t have any reason to hold anything against myself or against others. I am able to leave all judgment (comparison and competition) alone, and to open my heart up to God’s invitation to be still (at peace) and let Him be God (Psalm 46:10; D&C 101:16).
~Colleen H.
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Many years ago I discovered you and your book He Did Deliver Me Out of Bondage. The book made and impact and I was really trying to take it all in and make the ideas work and then I don’t even remember what happened, but I quit reading and journaling, etc. Well over the last few months I have had times when I would think about the book, no doubt the spirit trying to stir things up inside of me so I’d act on it. Finally, I did. Now I fear I might not go to sleep tonight and that would be bad because I teach seminary in about 5 hours! Anyways, long post just to say, I’m glad I took the time to find your blog and ideas and program again. I look forward to starting over and hopefully making some positive changes… heaven knows I need them!