The right way is to believe in Christ – 2 Nephi 25:29 – Come, Follow Me Ponderize
And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.
This verse is so powerful. First of all, with all of its simplicity is showing forth that Jesus Christ is the way to salvation. You also can’t really talk about this verse without also looking at the previous verse because they go hand-in-hand together.
And now behold, my people, ye are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law.
So simple and yet we are left without excuse.
As I was pondering the Ponderize scripture for the week, this analogy came to mind:
If you were stuck in a desert with your dying family and you had in your possession the map to the only water source that could save your and your family, would you not act immediately with all of your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul? Is this not our exact situation? We are dying here with our families, in this desert or mortal probation, and we have in our possession the only path to life and exaltation. What will we do with this great knowledge, will we not also take action with all of our might, mind, and strength, and our whole soul?
Wilford Woodruff said, “I look upon the cause of God and the mission that He has given each of us connected with it, as requiring the whole attention, the might, mind and strength 2 Ne. 25:29 D&C 4:2 of each one of us, in order to magnify our calling and accomplish the work committed to our hands.”
Let’s go look at D&C 4:2: Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
This is the work of exaltation that has been committed to our hands. We must be about our Father’s business (Luke 2:49), and nothing less than the surrender of our own desires, passions, actions, and even our life will suffice.
George A. Smith gave us this warning, “There is yet in the hearts of our people, although the reformation has done a great work, a spirit of selfishness. We have got to divest ourselves of this principle; we have got to become so perfectly stripped of it that we will love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, that our hearts will not be set upon our own property or upon the property of others, so as to covet the things that pertain to this world, and that, with our whole soul, mind, and strength, we will desire to serve the Lord our God—that we would just as soon set fire to our own dwellings, sacrifice our property, and flee into the mountains, to dwell there in dens, caves, and holes, as did the ancients, as dwell in palaces and enjoy the soft raiment of kings.”
This level of sacrifice and obedience does not come to us in an instant, but rather it comes to us line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little (Doctrine and Covenants 128:21).
I would like to close with the words of Joseph Smith, “Brethren [and sisters], shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren [and sisters]; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:21–22).
Craig
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