"I Seek Not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father"

Today, I was trying to decide what to study. I walked into my room to look at my options, and my eyes fell on the Lorenzo Snow book we are using this year in Relief Society. My heart leaped, and I knew God wanted me to find something in this book.

I scanned through the table of contents, and my heart settled on chapter 11: "I Seek Not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father."

The chapter starts out talking about Pres. Snow's 85th birthday, and the celebration he experienced at Brigham Young Academy. In response to the words of love and admiration that were shared about him, he stated, "I understand very distinctly that you are not paying this honor to me as Lorenzo Snow, but because of the cause I represent in connection with my brethren, my counselors and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve. . . I feel that whatever I have accomplished that it is not Lorenzo Snow, and the scenes that have brought me to this position as President of the Church--it is not Lorenzo Snow, but the Lord has done it."

Wow. I know the prophets are humble, but I am really struck with his complete humility in his saying that all the people were not celebrating his birthday because he is special, but because of what he has accomplished through Christ. I really needed to hear that because sometimes I get caught up in my pride and forget that every good thing I do is of God.

Pres. Snow also reminded me that even Christ, our God who created the earth, our Savior--whom without, I would be nothing--said, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek no mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). It's amazing to think that Christ, who has such an important role in our salvation, even has the humility to admit that he, of himself, can do nothing. That was another good reminder of humility for me.

Pres. Snow also said, "When we seek God's will, we follow a course in which there will be no failure." How many times have I been afraid of failure? A lot. One of my deepest fears is that I will fall short of eternal salvation. Or that I will fall into Satan's temptations or his black hole. It's nice to hear the gentle reminder from a prophet that the way to avoid those failures I fear is by following God's will.

The last thing I found really helpful today in my study was D&C 88: 67-68, "If your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you, and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God." For the past few days, I have fought the darkness a lot. The darkness is most definitely not a happy place to be. If my eye is single to God's glory, my whole body will be filled with light. If my eye is single to God's glory, there will be no darkness in me. So, I need to sanctify myself, so my mind becomes single to God's. I need to dedicate myself to Him. I need to allow my will to be His will. That is how I can defeat Satan and keep out of his dark snares.

I really loved what I read in this chapter today, and I wanted to share it. It perfectly ties into step 7 (humility).