In the opening scene of the Book of Mormon the Lord told Lehi He wanted him to take his family and leave Jerusalem. Lehi didn’t sit around wondering if this was a “command command” or just a divine suggestion. It was God’s will. That’s all he needed to know. They left Jerusalem and moved to an unpredictable, frightening place where the elements of survival were out of human control. It was there they learned life’s most important lesson. They learned to rely entirely upon the Lord in every facet of living!
At some time everyone on this earth is commanded or invited or placed in the wilderness. It may not be a wilderness with “lions and tigers and bears, oh my”, but it is a place or circumstance where the things we are use to depending on are no longer available or effective and we have to rely wholly on the Lord. In order to survive we have to seek to know His will, and then do His will. The strength to act comes directly from Him. When we live this way in the wilderness we not only survive, we thrive and we come to know our Savior Jesus Christ.
Most of us only venture into the wilderness when the call is obvious and we are seemingly without a choice, when catastrophe strikes; death, financial ruin, incarceration, loss of relationships, life threatening illness. But most of us keep our big toe in Jerusalem where our treasures are, the treasures we figured would see us through anything (money, position, organization, personality, education, our own strength, friends etc) and when the traumatic experience ends we move back to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem is coming down.
We think that this “Jerusalem” where we are seemingly in charge is the great reality, but this is not so. In Lehi’s vision we are taught that we all agreed to follow the Lord to “a dark and dreary waste.” That sounds like the wilderness to me. The greater reality is that we are already in the wilderness and have only to acknowledge it, take His hand and allow Him to lead us to a place of promises, a state were we keep our promises to Him and He keeps His promises to us. That’s the Promised Land! It is a place of covenants, of love and of complete dependence on Jesus Christ. Its glory and power and greatness surpass all, and the joy of remaining in this place is divine. Being in the wilderness with the Lord was and is the ultimate classroom.
By Nannette W.
Posted Saturday, September 6, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
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