In the Book of Mormon, in Mosiah 3:19 it says "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever..." I have heard people stop there and think that God considers them His enemy. And also in Helaman 12:7 how it says "O how great is the anothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are bless than the dust of the earth." If we stop there, it sounds like we really are worthless souls! Does God really consider us worthless and His enemy?
This morning I was reading a Conference talk and went to the footnotes and saw this scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where it says "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.
This scripture helps me understand a little better what Mosiah 3:19 may mean. If we take the things of the spirit of God to be foolishness, then we are alienating ourselves from God. And by alienating ourselves from God we are unable to understand the things of the Spirit because they are only to be understood through the Spirit. If we alienate ourselves from God, we may become His enemy by fighting against Him.
The rest of Mosiah 3:19 says: "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, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
This may be hard for some to take, because becoming as a child, submissive, meek and humble, etc. is against their nature. The idea of giving up our own will in submission to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ can be a hard one, when we value our own will. It may be hard and even scary to give up our own will to accept what God wants us to do. The difference between us and a child is that a child usually trusts their father.
What happens as we get older? Teenagers usually go through a phase where they may not be quite as obedient to their parents. They want to try their wings and do their own thing. It's usually not until they are parents and have their own children that they realize that maybe their parents knew more than they thought. Then sometimes they appreciate what their parents taught them and understand better the intentions of their parents.
Let's consider Helaman 12:8. After verse 7 where it says the children of men are less than the dust of the earth, Helaman 8 goes on to say why. It talks about the power of God and how he can command the dust of the earth. He can cause the hills and mountains to quake and be broken up and become smooth. He can cause the earth to stand still, the waters of the deep to be dried up, mountains to move, etc. etc. I think the reason we are less than the dust of the earth is because we don't always obey Him as the dust and the earth and the mountains do.
In Helaman 12:23 it says "Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved."
Verse 25: And I would that all men might be saved...
So from these scriptures I understand that God wants us to submit our will to His, and in return He will save us. But my experience with being submissive to God, hasn't been a trial or something bad. Submitting to God makes me free. It helps me to know what to do. When I obey Him and do what the Spirit prompts me to do, things go better than when I just do what I want to do. The idea is to get to the point where we want the same things as God does; because those things always bring a deeper joy than when we go against His will and do our own thing. My experience has been that I can trust Him. Things always go better in my life and I am happier when I follow the promptings I receive from Him.
