Thursday, July 2, 2015

Will of God - Will of Man

“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'” -C.S. Lewis

I think that, with the amount of agency we're given, we must be careful not to seek for things that are  contrary to God's will. God has given us His perfect counsel, but has left it up to us to decide whether we heed or ignore that counsel. He lets us choose, even when we choose poorly. One famous example of this is when Joseph Smith repeatedly asked for permission to lend the first 116 translated pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript to Martin Harris, despite getting repeated 'no' answers. Eventually, at Harris's and Smith's insistence, the Lord finally said something along the lines of "all right, then, have it your way," but it went rather badly for Joseph Smith and Martin Harris.

We should be careful not to make the same mistake. Those who insist on following their own paths, despite the Lord's counsel, are eventually left to their own wisdom, and it often leads them astray. Because God loves us, He offers us inspired guidance, but because He respects our agency, He lets us make our own decisions,even when they lead us to bad places. I'm not saying that a certain number of individuals made such a decision recently, but I am saying that we should each be careful not to make such decisions ourselves, no matter what other people are saying or doing.

God makes it rather clear, through the voice of His servants, what His will is concerning us. I hope that I have the courage to say "Thy will be done" rather than "my will be done." I have a feeling I know which course of action will work out better for me in the end.

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