As a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I am able to meet a lot of different people, who all come from a vast variety of backgrounds. Many times these people do not want much to do with another religion or to learn more about the " Mormon Church ". But there are those who do, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to share what I know to be true with these people. God wants so much to bless and help all of his children, and I testify that as everyone learns more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how it is Gods Church on the earth today, that we open ourselves up to be able to receive many more great and wonderful blessings from God that are available. God blesses us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, or Christs sacrifice when he died for our sins, and because of that we receive strength.
I experienced an instance of this just recently. I know a woman who is wanting to be baptized into the Church, and as she has been preparing to do so she has been trying to quit smoking for a couple weeks. Before she began we taught her how the Lord promises to help us fulfill all his commandments, and how the power of prayer would be a great strength to her quiting smoking as she asked the Lord for the strength to stop." Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you " (Matthew 7: 7). She felt prepared and had the desire to quit, so she began to try.
It was very difficult for her. She had many stressful situations and distractions that influenced her to not be able to stop like she had hoped. She would go for a brief time without but then fall back into the habit, she was struggling greatly with her addiction. We would talk to her and try to encourage her as best we could while continuing to teach her true principles, but her desire to quit just wouldn't stick.
She called us one night and she and I discussed for a time about how it was such a struggle. I asked her what she felt she could do to help with the situation. She then confessed to me that she had not been praying like she knew she should be. As she told me this I remembered the scripture that says, " I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise " (Doctrine and Covenants 82:10). She was loosing a promise from the Lord as she did not consistently pray to him for strength, and was allowing herself to be influenced by the wrong sources, just as 2 Nephi 32: 8 teaches " ....For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. " So she decided that she needed to pray. As she began to involve prayer in her efforts to quit smoking the Lord blessed her and gave her the strength she needed. She has been cigarette free from around that time to the present.
She is a child of God, just like you and I, and God is wanting to bless us all. He has given all of us promises, that if followed, we will be able to have such greater joy and peace than we ever had before. I know that to be true. God loves you, and will work great miracles in your life as you learn more and do all that he asks of you. And I say that in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
To learn more about Gods promised blessings to all of us, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, go to:
1 comment:
Hellow, i am Darwin, from Brasil. Do you have a another brother that was a missionare here ? I knew he e i would like to have notices about him. Thanks.
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