Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Armor of God

2 Nephi 13:9-11
"The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and doth declare their sin to be even as Sodom, and they cannot hide it.  Wo unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves!
Say unto the righteous that it is well with them; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Wo unto the wicked, for they shall perish; for the reward of their hands shall be upon them!"

We had a great lesson in Elder's Quorum today, it was about armor.  Brother Budge related a parable of sorts to us.  He spoke about the secret service and how rigorous their training is, all of the dangers they have to be prepared to face and encounter, as well as how the members of the service are selected.  He then went on to describe in fair amounts of detail all of the counter-measures they take to make sure that they are ready for any challenge they meet whether it be weapons, armor, vehicles, research, strategies, etc.  And then he related it to something much more important.

He related it to temptation, and what we should be doing to make sure that we are as prepared to face temptation as possible, and as strong as we can be when Satan rears his ugly head.  A member of the secret service would never go on a job without his pistol, his ballistic vest, his communications devices, and so on.  If he did, he sure wouldn't be very well prepared and if he failed to meet the expectations of his very important duty due to his lack of preparation, he would feel very foolish and might even get someone (or himself) killed.  That's pretty serious stuff.

But what's really more important?  What is even more serious?  What would be even more foolish to not be prepared for?  Not being prepared to encounter temptation can effect more than just the loss of a life, it can effect the loss of exaltation.  That seems like a far more foolish thing to not be prepared for.  In today's class we also talked about the various temptations we face today, as well as our counter-measures.  A few of those counter-measures are:

Feasting on the scriptures
Keeping your family close
Attending church meetings
Paying your tithing
Constant Prayer
etc...

If temptation is where sin begins, and succumbing to temptation is what leads us down the path that costs us our exaltation, how foolish would we be to go out "into the world" without being as prepared and personally-fortified as possible?  Why would we not do everything within our power to make sure that when temptation presents itself, we are strong enough to resist it, or to make sure that we are sober enough to call on the Lord in our time of dire need? 

Why is it that when we see something that appears to be a "real threat" such as terrorists, thieves, and the general dregs of society, we make sure to do whatever we can to protect ourselves.  But at the same time we fail to do so in order to protect ourselves from the sneakier villain of temptation and sin?

Constant upkeep of your spiritual well being will do far more for you in the long run (and short run, honestly) than constant upkeep of your possessions and physical desires.

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