Freed from Pharisaical Foresight
Today was rough. And as I do on most rough days, I watched one of my few favorite Mormon Messages. Today's treat was "You Never Know How Much Good You Do". I have probably watched this particular video over 100 times in my life. The part that gets me is the contrast in the prayers. In the beginning, our protagonist is praying with her children. Having a large to-do list, she prays what I have prayed many times throughout my life, "Please bless that we will be able to get done everything we need to do today." The video goes on to show her hectic day, a day where she feels she is one step behind on everything. She ends her day in frustration, not having finished the one task she really wanted to do that day. Her son prays with her and, although a subtle difference, says the words of his mother, but in the way we should all pray, "I thank Thee that we were able to do all the things Thou wouldst have us do today." It then flashes back throughout the day of the protagonist, showing the moments where she made a difference, but she had looked so far beyond what was needed, she never realized what she was doing was so much more important than what she had wanted.
It makes me think of the Pharisees. It makes me realize how often I see my relationship with Christ like a Pharisee. At the time of the Savior, "they were expecting a mighty king-Messiah to come and release them from political bondage under the Romans..." If you had asked the same people a few decades earlier, they would have said that the Savior would come to release them from the [insert oppressive government here]. They wanted so badly to be freed from the current affliction. If not the Romans, then the next group, or the previous group. In essence, they couldn't see beyond the day in which they lived. The prayer, "We want to get done what we want to get done today" was their relationship with Christ.
This is our problem, sometimes. We turn to God in our moment of need, seeing our current circumstance as the beginning and end of our existence. We plead, "Deliver us from the Romans." And what does God do? He sends a Lamb. Our reaction can be just as volatile as that of the scribes and Pharisees. We are seeking so badly for someone to build us a ladder to get us out of the pit of despair that we don't see the humble Man sent to teach us the way to climb. When we don't know, or simply forget, that this life is to learn and grow, we don't look to be learning or growing, just delivered. We get angry and frustrated and we cry because we knew what we wanted and God gave us the wrong thing. He obviously has no idea what He is doing.
The Pharisaical Foresight is not seeing that Christ will deliver us, but through our actions. He will be with us in the pit, teaching us, correcting us, showing us the way. He will cry with us and when we give up He will cry for us, pleading for us to come unto Him. Then whenever we do return, whenever we do try again after failing again, He is there with open arms, showing us that hope is not lost. Because He got in the pit to help us out. That was His mission and if it had been hopeless, He would never had bothered. But he did bother. He loves us so much. None of us are lost. All of us have a way out. We have been given the ability to get out with the help of our Older Brother, Jesus Christ.
So when you start getting discouraged that life is too tough at the given moment, be freed from Pharisaical foresight by utilizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
It makes me think of the Pharisees. It makes me realize how often I see my relationship with Christ like a Pharisee. At the time of the Savior, "they were expecting a mighty king-Messiah to come and release them from political bondage under the Romans..." If you had asked the same people a few decades earlier, they would have said that the Savior would come to release them from the [insert oppressive government here]. They wanted so badly to be freed from the current affliction. If not the Romans, then the next group, or the previous group. In essence, they couldn't see beyond the day in which they lived. The prayer, "We want to get done what we want to get done today" was their relationship with Christ.
This is our problem, sometimes. We turn to God in our moment of need, seeing our current circumstance as the beginning and end of our existence. We plead, "Deliver us from the Romans." And what does God do? He sends a Lamb. Our reaction can be just as volatile as that of the scribes and Pharisees. We are seeking so badly for someone to build us a ladder to get us out of the pit of despair that we don't see the humble Man sent to teach us the way to climb. When we don't know, or simply forget, that this life is to learn and grow, we don't look to be learning or growing, just delivered. We get angry and frustrated and we cry because we knew what we wanted and God gave us the wrong thing. He obviously has no idea what He is doing.
The Pharisaical Foresight is not seeing that Christ will deliver us, but through our actions. He will be with us in the pit, teaching us, correcting us, showing us the way. He will cry with us and when we give up He will cry for us, pleading for us to come unto Him. Then whenever we do return, whenever we do try again after failing again, He is there with open arms, showing us that hope is not lost. Because He got in the pit to help us out. That was His mission and if it had been hopeless, He would never had bothered. But he did bother. He loves us so much. None of us are lost. All of us have a way out. We have been given the ability to get out with the help of our Older Brother, Jesus Christ.
So when you start getting discouraged that life is too tough at the given moment, be freed from Pharisaical foresight by utilizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
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