Application Paper #1: One of Many, Part 2
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"...There is also a way to judge if our hearts are broken. A broken heart is a soft, an open, and a receptive heart. When I hear the Savior say, 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,'3 I hear Him knocking at the door of my heart. If I open this door to Him, I am more responsive to the invitations of the Spirit, and I am more accepting of God’s will. ("Being Accepted of the Lord")
Writing, praying, pondering, reading. I'm knocking. Pounding. It comes to the point I know how to ask and who to ask and receive the go ahead. The reply begins to teach my heart what my mind believes:
Kate,
I would ask you if you feel like He gives you sufficient “attention” now? Do you feel like He knows you and cares for you now? Do you feel close to Him now? I, like you, am not sure how He will do it, but I do know that "He is able” (D&C 60:7 and see the Topical Guide for Able too).My heart softens and opens as I read these words. Why does that happen? Why do words I know and could say to another choose to open my heart now? Curious. Words have to come with Light to be comprehended by the heart. I feel the warmth of the Light now.
How did he minister to all 2500 (3 Ne. 15:25) people in the Americas, allowing each one, one by one, to feel the prints of nails in His hands and His feet and thrust their hand into His side (3 Nephi 11:15)? Just ponder that for a moment and do some math. I am sure they all felt He loved them as He allowed them to take their time, He surely did not rush anyone of them.
A speech is passed on for me to read. The following words move me:
(...) These words of Anselm constitute good counsel: ‘Believe in order to understand,’ rather than ‘understand in order to believe’ (Saint Anselm: Basic Writings, trans. Sidney Norton Deane [1962], 7).
(...)The miracle of this planet has so many ongoing, marvelous subtleties. Wendell Berry ‘Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes.’ (Christianity and the Survival of Creation,'' in Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community [l 993], 103)
(...)Therefore, as we probe, ponder, and learn, we certainly should be filled with awe, and we should also be intellectually meek. King Benjamin counseled us with these simple but profound words:
‘Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power. Both in heaven and in earth. Believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.'' (Mosiah 4:9, emphasis added).
Alas, in our age, brothers and sisters, we have some who believe that if they cannot comprehend something, then God cannot comprehend it either. Ironically, some do actually prefer a “little god.'' Better for all of us scientists and nonscientific alike instead of trying to downsize divinity, to upside our personal humility!
(...) But the more we know, the more vital the why questions and the answers thereto become. Yet the answers to the why questions are obtainable only by revelations given by God the Creator, and more is yet to come.
(...)We know the Creator of the universe is also the Author of the plan of happiness. We can trust Him. He knows perfectly what brings happiness to His children (see Mosiah 2:41; Alma 41:10).
Meanwhile, as some experience daily life situations in which they are or feel unloved and unappreciated, they can nevertheless know that God loves them! His creations so witness.Therefore, we can confess His hand in our individual lives just as we can confess His hand in the astonishing universe (see D&C 59:2l). If we will so confess His hand now, one day we who are “cradled'' amidst His creations can even know what it is like to be “clasped in the arms of Jesus'' (Mormon 5:11).” ~ (Our Creator's Cosmos Elder Neal A. Maxwell, CES Conference, 13 August, 2002)
