Lesson summary July 28, 2013

Lesson Summary: From the Life of Lorenzo Snow Chapter #14   "With God All Things Are Possible."
Laura Mast did an excellent job of presenting this lesson. However, as usual, the lesson contained so much good information and we had so many insightful comments that we were not able to discuss the full lesson. 

 

In reading the lesson, I was strongly impressed with the last two pages.  Below is part of what we were not able to cover. 

Please read and ponder this information from President Lorenzo Snow, it puts things in proper perspective.   

God has promised to help us in our personal efforts to live the gospel.

    In and of ourselves we cannot possibly comply with all the commandments that God has given unto us. Jesus himself could not without divine aid from His Father accomplish His work. He said on one occasion, “I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.” [John 5:30.]

 

    And we, if it was necessary for Him, our Lord, to have divine assistance, will find it all the more important to receive His assistance. And in every circumstance and condition surrounding the Latter-day Saints, while in the performance of our duties, we are entitled to supernatural aid from the Holy Spirit, to help in the various conditions surrounding us, and in the duties that we are required to perform.

 

    â€¦ I cannot imagine anything that is so vastly important as to work for and obtain one’s own individual exaltation and glory. That undoubtedly is one great purpose for which we came into the world. … No man or woman should be discouraged when they feel that they cannot complete what they would like to perform, but we all should do what we can toward carrying out the grand work for which we are here.⁹

 

    The character of the religion that we have espoused demands a certain course of conduct that no other religion that we know of requires of its adherents; and the nature of those demands upon us [is] such that no person can comply with them, unless by assistance from the Almighty. It is necessary that we comprehend, at least in part, the great and important blessings that we are to derive, eventually, by complying with the requirements of the religion or gospel that we have received.

 

    The sacrifices that are required of us are of that nature that no man or woman could make them, unless aided by a supernatural power; and the Lord, in proposing these conditions, never intended that his people should ever be required to comply with them unless by supernatural aid, and of that kind that is not professed by any other class of religious people. He has promised [us] this aid. â€¦

 

    These demands … were required in every age and period when God called a people to serve him, and to receive his laws.

 

    They were required in the days of Israel, in the beginning of that people. They were required of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were required of Moses, and of the people that he led from Egyptian bondage. They were required by all the prophets that existed from the days of Adam to the present period of time. They were required by the apostles that received their commission by the laying on of hands of Jesus Christ, and by the people the apostles proclaimed the gospel and taught.  No man, or set of men, or class of people from the day of Adam to the present time, could comply with these requirements, except the people of God, as they were endowed with power from on high, which could proceed only from the Lord our God.¹⁰

 

When we participate in God’s work, we need God’s help.

    Whatever you may undertake for the furtherance of the interests of Zion, you must depend upon the Lord for its success.¹¹

 

    A man’s mind should be single to the glory of God in everything that he starts to accomplish. We should consider that of ourselves we can do nothing. We are the children of God. We are in darkness, [unless] God enlightens our understanding. We are powerless, [unless] God helps us. The work that we have to do here is of that nature that we cannot do it unless we have the assistance of the Almighty. …

 

    Here is the great trouble with men of the world, and too much so with the Elders of Israel; we forget that we are working for God; we forget that we are here in order to carry out certain purposes that we have promised the Lord that we would carry out. It is a glorious work that we are engaged in. It is the work of the Almighty; and He has selected the men and the women whom He knows from past experience will carry out His purposes.¹²

 

    This work in which you and I are engaged can only prosper and be forwarded through the blessings of God upon our faithful and honest exertions and our determination to accomplish the labors for which we have come into this existence. When we look back upon the experiences through which we have passed, we easily understand that our prosperity has been dependent upon our honest endeavors to accomplish the work of God, to labor in the interest of the people, and to rid ourselves as far as possible of selfishness. This having been so in the past, we can well believe that our future progress will depend upon our determination to do the will of God under all circumstances and the aid which He shall give to us.¹³

 

Thank you Laura, for this wonderful lesson!