10-2-11 “He did deliver me from bondage” p. 94, Day 5

10-2-11    “He did deliver me from bondage”  p. 94, Day 5

Alma 36

I believe God created in my heart a longing to be close to Him and my Savior.  I have known from my childhood the source to which I can look for a remission of my sins.  Though I did not always follow Him, I have always known that my Jesus was there to rescue me when I decided I had had enough of trying to make my way without Him.  I don’t really know why but something in the back of my mind has always been there in my past telling me to search all my other options thoroughly before making a final decision.  When I used to shop for shoes for hours on end I would usually start my day finding the pair I wanted, and then have to search for the rest of the day to find all the ones I didn’t want so that I could know for sure that the ones I found in the beginning were the ones I really wanted.  What is that?  Why did I have to search that way??  Ironically enough when it came to getting married the first time, I didn’t do this and I should have.  I hadn’t gotten my ‘dating quota’ filled and felt pressured into getting married.  I didn’t know any better then and let the circumstances drive my decision.  The good thing is that now I know I am finally with someone that God wants me to be with.  I know my marriage is ordained of God. 

After years of pounding my head against a brick wall, and needlessly torturing myself, I finally decided I had had enough.  The pain of not knowing if God loved me all came to an explosive head one day when I knelt and He knew that I had to know.  There was no other place that I could find the answers my soul longed to find.  I was out of other options.  I had looked for that other source all of my life, even though I knew there was one that would work somewhere behind me.  I really don’t understand why I did that.  It seems very strange to me, but that’s the way my mind worked…  Now I can say without equivocation or the least bit of questions in my mind that I know for sure that now I have finally found the True and Living Water.  I know that Jesus Christ is the only way we can be healed.  I know He is the Only One with the love that goes deep enough to reach all the way down to the deep gall and bitterness that cankered my heart. 

Hilary Weeks:  “NOW”  Truly I was lost, and Now I’m found.

9-30-11 “He did deliver me from bondage” p. 93, Day 4

9-30-11    “He did deliver me from bondage” p. 93, Day 4

I like 3 N 27:7-8 to answer her question.   There is also a scripture that says there is no other name given whereby man can be saved except in and through the name of Christ.  I think for those that believe in Christ, they would not argue this point.  What does seem to be a more revealing question in the world today is “Can we be happy in this life without Him?”  I would be very interested to get others points of view on this, even those who do not do not believe in Christ.

It has been my experience that as humans, we are all made up emotionally of 4 basic needs.  One of these needs is to love, and to love others we must first to learn to love ourselves.  For me, I could not love myself until I knew of God’s love for me.  So for me, I cannot know who I am without my relationship to God.  It’s as if there was created in me a homing beacon.   Or I also see it like a hole that we have a great need to fill.  We search aimlessly in life for the right peg to this hole, until we find the true Living Water and the Bread of Life.  I have heard others express an emptiness that they don’t think will ever be filled.  I have seen those who turn to drugs or alcohol to try to shove a square peg in a round hole, just to do ANYTHING to fill the desperate emptiness they have- the hole in their heart.  Without the answers God has given me, I would probably be doing the same thing today.  I hurt for the pain they suffer.  I long to help them understand that they are more than they think they are, but I know that lack of belief because of Satan’s chains keeps them from believing.  But there must be a way to help them break free.  If they decide to try from the inside out, then there is a way.  I have traveled it and I know it’s possible.  For me there is no other hope than through Him who created my soul, who knows and understands all the parts and pieces that I cannot quite explain.  He created the need in me and He is the only one who can fill it.