Posted on by Abe Austin

Divided from God- Summary

My previous study was about needing to make time for God. As I was writing it though, I wanted to address the times where I have wished that that process was simpler. Because at the outset, coming to God often does not appear to be very straightforward. It is understandable to get frustrated by this perceived divide.

One of my reasons for writing this blog is to not only explore spiritual epiphanies, but also the spiritual frustrations that precede them. I think we are mistakenly afraid of being blasphemous if we admit that following God was, at times, aggravating.

But saying that something is aggravating is not the same as saying that it isn’t worth it. All relationships come with friction and frustration, but in them we also derive the greatest joy. And that includes our relationship with God. Do I wish that things were easier…a part of me wants to say yes, but a part of me knows it just couldn’t work that way.

We Are Twice Divided From God

When we are in the womb we maintain a direct connection with our nurturing mother. No effort is required for us to maintain sustenance, we acquire it freely. After birth, the mother’s body continues to provide nutrition for us, but the direct tether to her is severed. We can still be nourished, but now, and forever after, we’re going to have to work for it.
I do not believe that there is any coincidence for how well this reflects the separation from God brought about by the fall, and the effort now required of us to now reconnect with Him. It is our common lot as humankind.
But that only accounts for one of our separations. The second is that which we bring upon our own selves. Guilt and shame that have nothing to do with what Adam or Eve did, but rather what sins we, ourselves, have chosen to commit.
Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death
Alma 42:9- Therefore, as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death.

There are Reasons and Wisdom Behind This Divide

Going back to the example of the newborn, the only way for an infant to remain tethered to its mother would be by stunting its growth forever. It could never grow to the full measure of a man or a woman while remaining so linked.
Character is defined by the things that we do when we do not feel another’s eyes peering over our shoulder. Character growth occurs when we do good things because of our own volition. In this way it is wise for God to allow enough separation for us to act and grow on our own.
Also, our separation from God ebbs and flows. Sometimes His presence is nearer and sometimes it is farther, depending on our own actions. This ingenious state of change provides an essential feedback loop for measuring our own behavior. When I sin, I feel more withdrawn from God, and that unpleasantness motivates me towards better choices. These, in turn, draw me nearer to Him.
2 Nephi 2:24- But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
Doctrine and Covenants 6:28- For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

The Divide Can Be Closed

If we were to directly see God in our daily lives, there would surely be far greater feelings of fulfillment in our hearts and far less evil performed in the world. But also we would be stunted children, just as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.
God planted the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden to allow for the reality of today. It was a gift. Now we truly and independently act. We make choices, feel God’s presence grow nearer or farther, and by that steer ourselves as we see fit. And if we choose to steer ourselves back to God, then regaining His presence will really mean something. It won’t just some default state that was premortally chosen for us. It will be the destiny that we have chosen for ourselves.
Mother birds have been known to push their young out of the nest. But they do not this so that the child will never return to the trees, rather so that when it does it will do so upon magnificent wings!
2 Timothy 4:7- I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Philippians 4:13- I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Divided from God- James 4:8, Doctrine and Covenants 67:12

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Neither can any natural man abide the presence of God, neither after the carnal mind.

COMMENTARY

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you
Neither can any natural man abide the presence of God
We have examined how we feel a divide from God, one that can confuse us and even frustrate us. We have also considered how this separation is appointed to us by divine wisdom, to aid us in developing godlike attributes like faith and patience.
However, I cannot claim that all separation from God is according to His divine plan. Because if I’m being honest, most of the times that I have felt a lack of God’s presence, it was because I was living a life where His spirit could not abide. I actively made choices to keep him at bay. I didn’t want Him to get too near because of my shame.
Absolutely I believe that God is willing to work with the sinner…but the sinner also has to be willing to work with Him. You don’t have to be perfect to hold God’s hand, but you do need to be reaching. If ever you feel that God isn’t as available as you wish, you might consider whether you feel right in your conscience.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Divided from God- 2 Nephi 2:24-25, Matthew 6:8

But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

COMMENTARY

All things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things
Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him
We have already discussed how in this fallen world we feel a strange strain, one where need God’s presence, but lack the ability to commune with Him directly. Not only this, but also we are a soul divided, some parts of us craving for divinity and others for debauchery.
It is natural to wonder why are we divided so? Why is our spirit so willing, but our flesh so weak? Why do we search for God but do not see Him? Why can’t it all be more straightforward?
It is a strange, fallen world we live in, but perhaps we can take solace in the knowledge that this is how it is supposed to be. God simply would not have let us come here unless it was for our own good. God knows what we need even before we do, and provides what is good for us.
Perhaps we cannot fully understand why. Perhaps we do not need to. In the end all that we need to do is accept that God god “knoweth all things,” and that what He has orchestrated has been “done in wisdom.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Divided from God- Romans 6:23, John 14:6

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

COMMENTARY

For the wages of sin is death
Previously we examined how we are all cut off from direct connection with God. This sort of severance is called a spiritual death in the scriptures. It falls on us universally, both because of the Fall of Adam and Eve, and also because of our own failure to keep God’s commandments perfectly. Thus, twice-fold, the wages of sin truly are death, and we would forever be cast off from God if there was no intervention.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me
I am a Christian, because I believe that this separation from God can only be overcome through Jesus Christ. I therefore call him my Savior. There is a more generic term that can be used, though, that of the Messiah. Messiah is a title which means one who saves or reclaims a people, and it turns out that belief in a Messiah is present in many world religions.
The Jews are waiting for a yet-unnamed Messiah, one who will be king of Israel, born from the royal line of David. Several branches of Islam await the coming of one Mahdi, who will finally reunite all people under one faith. Maitreya is a figure in Buddhist teaching, who will come and renew the teaching of pure dharma after the world has forgotten it.
Thus the major world religions might respectfully disagree on the exact identity of the Messiah, but they do agree that one exists. I find it very telling that this idea is so universally accepted. We all agree that we have come to a darkness, and that someone will come to bring us the light. Someone must close the divide and bring us back to the throne of God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Divided from God- Question

There is an interesting dilemma that many experience in the gospel. They are taught of a God that is ever-near, full of compassion, and able to be petitioned for one’s daily needs. These are beautiful and encouraging thoughts, ones that the inner soul desperately craves for.

However then there is this matter of a God unseen. Initially it can be hard to resolve the notion of an ever-present Father with the reality of never directly perceiving this entity. God appears to be lurking just out sight, only able to be guessed at, and never truly known.

It would seem that we have been consigned to a state of frustration, ever wanting to know God more, but lacking the capacity to have our fill of Him. And yet Jesus promised that we would, in fact, be able to be filled and never left wanting again. I have found this statement to be true, though it frankly surprised me that it was.

With this study I would like to explore how God discloses Himself by degrees to those that come seeking Him, and how He does so in unexpected ways. We will consider how He is able to meet our need for divinity, even while remaining behind a shroud. Finally we will seek to understand the reasons behind His methodologies, exploring the reasons for His perceived absence.

In the meantime, have you ever found yourself wishing for a more immediate connection with God? Did He ever answer that need, even if not in the way you expected? What advice can you offer for how a neophyte can maintain patience while waiting to know God better?

Posted on by Abe Austin

Making Time for God- Summary

Many of us see the tragedies in the world, feel very discontented by them, and idly hoped that “someone would do something.” I certainly have had those moment myself, times where I vaguely wished for God’s help in the world, but at the same time was not actively making Him a part of my life.

Even then, I knew in my heart that God’s help is enacted through the people that strive to walk with Him. Therefore by not making Him a part of my life, I was actively disqualifying myself from being one of the instruments that I knew the world needed.

So maybe I don’t know how to cure all of the world’s problems. Maybe some of them I can’t do anything about. But I do know that there is some impact for good that I can do, and the only way to do it is if I am actively making time for God. This study helped me to explore why this is easier said than done, though, and what strategies we can employ to counter those obstacles.

Making Time for God is Just Hard

The most frustrating thing about not putting God first is that we feel like it should be an easy thing for us to do. We think that giving Him daily devotion and training our thoughts to be pure should simply be a matter of dedicating a few minutes to him and exercising some mindfulness. When we fail to achieve this, we start to think that there’s something wrong with us.
The simple, and hopefully encouraging, truth is that making time for God is not easy, and there is nothing wrong with us when we struggle to do it. We all live in a fallen world, one that is intent on crowding out things of a spiritual nature. The distractions of life are expertly subtle, cloaked so innocently that we don’t give them a second thought, and then they silently leech our time and energy from God.
Any opening in our lives is a vacuum that will be filled. In my own life I’ve noticed how I always seem to be subscribed to just enough YouTube channels to fill up all my available time. If ever I try to cut back, something instantly springs up to take its place. Something little, something innocuous, but something that isn’t God.
1 Corinthians 2:14- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We Are In Our Own Way

The problem with that “natural man” is that, well, it is natural. It is inside all of us without exception. There is a craving for the worldly distractions that each one of us is born with. It might manifest with different tastes, but each of those tastes can be easily indulged on this earth. Do you prefer lust? Do you desire recognition? Do you want a thrill? Gossip? Idle entertainment? Meaningless achievements? A never-ending chase for something new? It’s all here, take your fill, the supply will never run out!
In the end our problem doesn’t begin with the pornography or television shows or workaholic mentality. It’s that we don’t know how to just say “No!” to these things. We do not know how to master our selves, to meet our needs in healthy ways, to steer ourselves to something better.
We can’t make time for God because we can’t keep our own promises to ourselves. We can’t escape our sins and vanities because we don’t have the nerve to live without them.
1 Corinthians 3:3- For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Mosiah 3:19- For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.

Putting God First Requires an Entirely New Us

And now we get to the bottom of it. This is why putting God first is so hard: because it requires a totally new version of ourselves, one where our spiritual self has defeat the carnal. But how can our spiritual self be powerful enough to defeat the carnal, except for by us having already putting God first in our lives?
It is a conundrum that is beyond us, a paradox that would halt us all, were a Savior not to intervene. We cannot lift ourselves by our own bootstraps…but he can lift us. He can pull us out of the water, because he alone can stand unsinking upon it.
Making time for God and becoming someone new are able to happen in one and the same moment with Christ’s help. Yes, at the start we lack the necessary self-mastery, but he will give us of his own. He asks us to choose one way that we can make God more a part of our lives, and if we sincerely try, then he will make up the difference and we can hold that change. And then another after that and another. The further we go, the less of a void he has to fill within us, the more we have been remade as him.
Making time for God isn’t just the first step along the way towards perfection, it is the entire journey.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Making Time for God- Alma 34:33, Matthew 6:34

And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

COMMENTARY

Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance, the night of darkness cometh wherein there can be no labor performed
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
There is a great enemy to our making time for our God: our incredible ability to procrastinate. In fact it takes very little effort to convince us that we need more of God’s presence in our lives, but it is extremely difficult to convince us that we need it right now. Anytime I try to make more time for Him I feel a great hesitation, a preference to do it later.
I think part of the reason is that I know God will always be there for me. Any day, any hour, I can come to Him and He’ll receive me. But on the other hand, I have worldly relationships that might end, opportunities that I might lose, and fun that I might miss out on if I don’t make time for them immediately. So it becomes very easy to say “yes, I need you God…but let me take care of this other stuff first. I’ll get around to you tomorrow.”
But we have no direct, active control over tomorrow, do we? We only have direct, active access to the present. Think of it. In all the world and throughout all of history, the only time that anyone has ever made any kind of change…was in their right now. When I say that I will make time for God tomorrow, all I have really said is “I won’t make time for you now.” And if I won’t make time for Him now, tomorrow-me probably isn’t going to either. The only guarantee that any of us have is if we choose Him today.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Making Time for God- 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Kings 19:11

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

COMMENTARY

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, because they are spiritually discerned
Many of the truths of the gospel are hidden in plain sight. There is no gate or lock that prevents access to them, but they are around a corner that one has to take intentionally. For that simple reason alone, there are very few that find them.
Consider how each of these qualities hide God’s truths, and therefore make prioritizing Him a matter of conscious effort:

  • There are other, louder voices that drown Him out. For Elijah it was earthquakes and fire, for us it is media and society. We never will hear Him unless we make a specific effort to mute those voices, get away to a place of solitude, and finally be able to listen to a still, small voice.
  • Spiritual things can only be perceived spiritually. They are not understood by our fleshy senses, and therefore it is very easy to miss them. When we do feel stirrings of the Spirit it is very easy to later dismiss them as imagined. Believing in the witnesses we have received requires consciously exercising our spiritual nature.
  • Many of the blessings of the gospel come with a delay. It may be years of treating your body as a temple before you see how much more health you have because of it. Making time for God is therefore an investment, an act of faith, with dividends paid out in His own timing.

All of these make seeing God difficult, and frankly that’s how it is meant to be. God makes Himself known to His children, but He does not force Himself on them. No one falls into discipleship by accident. If we are to have a relationship with God, the onus is on us. He respects us, and wants us to come to Him only when that is what we want to do. He thus preserves our free will and ensures that we are acting deliberately.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Making Time for God- Question

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and we have a lot of wheels squeaking in our lives! The smartphone chirps at us, social media rants at us, the television blares at us. Life is a dashboard full of meters constantly draining towards empty, and we rush about frantically trying to fill them all.

We’re afraid of losing things, of missing out, of leaving opportunities on the table. Our lives become machine-like, incessantly servicing all the many calls for our attention.

God, meanwhile, doesn’t squeak at us at all. He’s much too dignified to stoop to that level. This shows what great respect He has for us, but also makes it easy to lose sight of Him amidst the din of the world. Still He waits, patiently, for however long it takes. He waits for us to come to Him. Usually when we do, we’re the ones squeaking now. Squeaking in pain!

Well, God has grease for His in-pain, squeaky-wheel-children. He commiserates with us, then soothes us, and finally heals us. Then we, eternally grateful, skip away happily and promptly lose sight of Him once more. We’re caught back up in the world, we’ll come back when we’ve scraped our knees again.

It’s a way to live life, and I suppose it could be worse…but also it could be better. God invites us to make Him a more permanent fixture in our lives, to give Him time each and every day to heal and strengthen us. He offers to be with us every hour.

With this study we’ll consider how to push some of the world’s clutter off of our shelves and make space for God. We’ll examine what tricks the adversary uses to distract us from the things that really matter. Before we get started, though, I’d love to hear in what ways you’ve found yourself overwhelmed by the noise of the world, and how you were able to make a time and place for holiness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Need for Refreshing- Summary

This study has been an excellent grounding experience for me. I have, at times, made the mistake of reaching for the great and monumental things at the expense of the daily essentials. This study helped me to verbalize the folly I always felt in that.

Since I was a small boy I have had daily and weekly rituals, such as reading the scriptures, praying, and partaking of the sacrament. Usually I did not come to them with real meaning, though, I came only to check them off a list. It was like I came to a feast, but only to watch others eat.

Within the last two years I have made a real effort to start feasting for myself. It is amazing to me how much richness I was missing out on, how much strength comes from these little, regular observances. Having had such an awakening, I decided to do a study on why these small moments matter so much. Here are three key principles that I found.

Discipleship is Built on Regular Consistency

We always love to hear stories of monumental moments. Things like a heavenly vision that turned a sinner into a saint, or a noble stand that defeated every enemy, or a single sacrifice that made up for all wrongs.
We wish to have these moments in our lives. Some quick, intense fix that will forever turn us into the people we wish to be. A moment of such magnitude that its ripples course through us all the rest of our lives.
It’s a nice thought, but that simply isn’t how it works. Life does not come with a “flip of the light-switch” solution. Life was not given to us as a single day, but as thousands. Our victories are not meant to be measured as one great rock, then, but as thousands of small stones, accumulated one at a time, and carefully stacked into a great whole.
Isaiah 28:10- For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little
Alma 37:6- Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass

Sacraments Refresh the Spirit

Aristotle observed that “we are what we repeatedly do.” I wish to be a disciple of Christ, and so I must consistently follow His example.
But there is to every regular practice a resistance. Some days discipleship comes easily, it feels like the most natural and fitting thing to do. But many days it feels like it doesn’t fit me at all, like I’m trying to wear a coat that is too big. The natural inclination is to say “maybe tomorrow, then, but not today.” We might even reason to ourselves that forced discipleship isn’t even discipleship at all, so why bother? The Lord loves a “cheerful giver,” not a begrudging one, right?
But that is the beauty of the sacrament, and prayer, and scripture study. They are designed to take the crufty heart and breath new life into it. Come lethargic, come worn out, come feeling incomplete and unworthy, all are welcome. But do, at least, come willing to let the light in.
Romans 12:2- And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Jeremiah 31:25 (BSB)- For I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.

God Sends Us Reminders

Sometimes we forget that God is fighting fiercely for us. At least I know that I do. I tell myself that I darn well better be consistent in my spiritual exercises, otherwise I’ll lose myself and no one will check up on me. I suppose if we’re only talking about other mortals, then there might be some truth to that. I don’t have anyone calling me up and asking “Did you say your morning prayer today? Did you lay your sins on the altar when taking the sacrament? Do you feel spiritually awake right now?”
And sometimes I would have liked to have had someone to call me out, because I didn’t have good answers to those questions and I needed someone to awaken my soul. But then, as I think about it, each one of those times someone did come knocking.
Because, you see, every time I miss a prayer, there was a person left waiting at the table who felt my absence just as much I feel His. There is someone who knows that just as much as I need to recommit to Him, I also need to feel again His commitment to me. There is someone who is asking me every day to let Him love me. And He doesn’t stop until at last I do open the door and I weep for having ever shut Him out.
Revelation 3:20- Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.