Sunday, February 1,2015

"APPROACHING THE THRONE OF GOD WITH CONFIDENCE"
an address by Elder Jorg Klebingat

"By applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you can begin increasing your spiritual confidence today if you are willing to listen and act."

 

Today, Sister Joy Metten gave an excellent presentation of this talk from October 2015 Conference.  Elder Klebingat presented a number of questions at the opening of his talk.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your spiritual confidence before God? Do you have a personal witness that your current offering as a Latter-day Saint is sufficient to inherit eternal life? Can you say within yourself that Heavenly Father is pleased with you? What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Savior one minute from now? Would sins, regrets, and shortcomings dominate your self-image, or would you simply experience joyful anticipation? Would you meet or avoid His gaze? Would you linger by the door or confidently walk up to Him?"

 

Sis. Metten led us through a discussion of how GUILT can be used as either a tool or a weapon.  She pointed out that used as a tool, the Holy Spirit can let us know when we have done something wrong and how we can work to correct our actions to regain our footing on the right path. Satan, on the other hand chooses to use guilt as a weapon to weaken and cripple us. We were reminded that Satan employs a vicious campaign of discouragement against us to lead us astray. He will tell us lies to destroy our confidence in a 'personal and loving God'; to create a distance from our Heavenly Father and Jesus that can cause us to lose our faith in them and their desire to help us overcome our imperfections. As Elder Klebingat says "As long as  you allow these voices to chisel away at your soul, you can't approach the throne of God with real confidence.  Whatever you do . . . there will always be just enough self-doubt chipping away at your faith . . ."   We all agreed that we have to avoid the lies, pray daily and rely on our Heavenly Father and Jesus to increase our faith. 
 

Elder Klebingat shared six practical suggestions to help us "restore the peaceful assurance and spiritual confidence that is (y)ours to have if you only want it."  He encourages us that "by applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you can begin increasing (y)our spiritual confidence today if you are willing to listen and act."   

• 1. Take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being. Stop blaming others or your circumstances, stop justifying, and stop making excuses for why you may not be fully striving to be obedient. Accept that you are "free according to the flesh" and "free to choose liberty and eternal life". (2 Nephi 2:27) Further, he reminded us that if there is to be change, we must be completely honest & admit it. He stressed that "Spiritual confidence increases when you take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being by applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ daily."
• 2. Take responsibility for your own physical well-being.  In reading Doc. & Cov. 88:15 we see that our soul is composed of both our body and our spirit.  If we feed our spirit and neglect our body, our mortal temple, we risk spiritual dissonance and lowered self-esteem.  Elder Klebingat very strongly advises that "If you are out of shape and can do something about it, then do it!"  He quoted Elder Russell M. Nelson in saying that we should "regard our body as a temple of our very own" and that we should "control our diet and exercise of physical fitness". Comments from our sisters included how even mild exercise such as taking a walk can improve our feelings of well-being. "Spiritual confidence increases when your spirit, with the help of the Savior, is truly in charge of your natural man or woman."
• 3. Embrace voluntary, whole-hearted obedience as part of your life. A major point in this category is that we cannot fully love God without also loving His commandments. The Savior set the example and made clear his standard in John 14:15 "If you love me, keep my commandments". We are also cautioned to do the right things for the right reasons. "Make the Church and the restored Gospel your whole life, not just a part of our outward or social life." "Spiritual confidence increases when you are truly striving, for the right reasons, to live a consecrated life in spite of your imperfections!"
• 4. Become really, really good at repenting throughly and quickly.  We are told that the Atonement never runs out and that we should apply it generously, daily. We can establish an attitude of on-going, happy, joyful repentance by making it our lifestyle of choice and avoid the temptation to procrastinate. "Spritual confidence increases when y ou voluntarily and joyfully repent of sins, both small and great, in real time by applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ."
• 5. Become really, really good at forgiving. In quoting Doc. & Cov. 64:10, "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men". Elder Klebingat admonishes that we should ". . .forgive and forget quickly, and don't ever think that you are exempt from this commandment."  "Spiritual confidence increases when you know that the Lord knows that you bear no ill feelings toward another soul."
• 6. Accept trials, setbacks and "surprises" as part of your mortal existence. In Elder Klebingat's words "Remember that you are here to be proved and tested, 'to see if [you] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [your] God shall command [you]' (Abraham 3:25)—and may I just add, "under all circumstances." Sister Metten pointed out that our trials are opportunities to prove ourselves. We should not be so hard on ourselves, but acknowledge and face our shortcomings to become stronger. Ref. Ether 12:27.

My personal belief is that we can do no wrong that our Savior's Atonement cannot heal. We should strive to increase and strengthen our spirits and our bodies so that we can be balanced and in tune with the Holy Spirit. We should humble ourselves to live the gospel daily, pray to our Heavenly Father and try our very best to obtain a remission of our sins so that we can be rewarded with eternal life.

 

Your apprentice bloggess,

 

Karen