I've got a big list of things to do today, so my goal is to balance my time between all the different needs in such a way to maintain a feeling of peace instead of pressure. To be successful at this I know that I will need some help from above, so prayer was first on the list. I prayed with gratitude for the opportunities I have to learn more, to improve my talents, and to trust in the Lord more. I also asked the Lord to guide me in the tasks that need to be done today and to let me know when it was too much and I needed to take a break. I am working on listening to the Lord's voice more and controlling the little voice in my head that keeps telling me that everything has to be done right now!
I am studying in Genesis 9 today. Genesis 9:11-15 talks about the covenant that God made with Noah. As I researched more about covenants it became apparent that some people view covenants more like a business transaction but with the emotion of fear attached. It was more of a do this or pay the consequences situation. I found this disturbing, because it appeared that the motivations behind these people keeping covenants was solely to fulfill the contractual obligations for fear of the consequences.
Personally, I have always thought that covenants were a positive way to bind ourselves to the Lord to bring us closer to him. It is not out of fear, but out of love that we make covenants. The Lord was giving me the chance to learn more about covenants and I was ready to be taught.
What is a covenant?
Here is the definition of a covenant from the Study by Topic section on lds.org:
-a sacred agreement between God and a person or group of people. God sets specific conditions, and He promises to bless us as we obey those conditions. When we choose not to keep covenants, we cannot receive the blessings, and in some instances we suffer a penalty as a consequence of our disobedience.
Covenant making is sacred and personal, which means there are some strong emotions involved. What emotions are behind making covenants? This is a good question worth researching.
God' emotions
Jeremiah 31:33-34: "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
In these verses the Lord talks about "inward parts" and "hearts". What emotion is attached to inward parts and hearts? Love. God makes covenants because He loves us.
The next line explains what kind of love: He wants to be our God and we shall be his people. As a parent I understand the desire to want to keep my children with me, it is the same for God. Covenants help him keep his children near him.
The Lord states that through covenants "they shall all know me". There are clues into the character of God in the covenants that he makes with men. Just look at the baptismal covenants: to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end (see Mosiah 18:8–10; D&C 20:37). Before you can take the name of Jesus Christ it requires that you learn about who He is, keeping the commandments means learning how to behave like God, and serving Him to the end means that this is a lifetime pursuit of learning to know what is God's will. There is a pattern here, everything comes back to His love for us!
Covenants are so important to God that he made this statement: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10)
This is a great statement of love, He will always keep His part of the bargain as long as we do our part. If there are consequences to our actions, we bring them upon ourselves. He really just wants to love and bless us.
Man's emotions
Mosiah 5:7: "And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters."
D&C 97:8: "Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me."
Again we find the word "hearts" in verses regarding covenants. In these cases, it is faith that changes our hearts so that we desire to make covenants with the Lord and we are told what characteristics of the heart we will have when we are ready to make covenants. Just as God makes covenants because of His love for us, we choose to make covenants because we love him.
This is the motivation I choose, love instead of fear. If everything God does for us is motivated by His love for us, doesn't it make sense that love should be the motivation behind everything we do for Him. He has given us covenants to bind us to him through love. Somehow that makes me love him even more!
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