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Scripture
1 Nephi 7:12—The Lord is able to do all things… for the children of men, if…they exercise faith in him.
As far back as I can remember, even into my earliest childhood years, I have always believed in God and that He could do all things—with one exception. I did not believe He could save me. In fact, I was certain He couldn’t. After all, I had prayed constantly for years to be relieved of my addiction, and to no lasting avail. I was like the alcoholic described below:
He’s sure he still believes in God, but suspects that God doesn’t believe in him. (12&12, 32)
What I didn’t realize then was, while I wanted to stop my addictive behavior and its consequences, I wasn’t willing to be changed in my heart. Now I know that God can only restore us to sanity if we are willing to believe He can. If we think we are greater than He, that we have more power to mess up than He has to redeem and recover, then we haven’t yet come to believe in a power greater than ourselves.
Some of us are too terrified by the truth of our own powerlessness to give up believing that we’re all-powerful. But give it up we must, or we will be unable to exercise faith in Him. It’s as if our belief that we are all-powerful is using up the same energy or space which we must have in order to exercise faith in Him.
Application:
Ponder and prayerfully write about whether you really believe God has the power to save you. If you find you do believe He has that power, then you’re ready to face the more likely hang-up: whether you believe He will save you. Explore and write about how you feel about whether He cares to save you, whether He will go to any lengths to save you.
Write a letter to your Heavenly Father, sharing your honest feelings. Be humble and believing. Listen for answering thoughts and impressions to come into your mind. Record this conversation with Him. He loves you. He will answer you with mercy and kindness. Remember, as the prophets themselves have testified, He would have died to save even one of us. He longs for you to let that one be you.
~Excerpted from Patterns of Light I ©2013, 2000 Hearthaven Publishing
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