Lord, If Thou Wilt

Hey friends (or if you happened to stumble upon this blog and don't know who I am, hello to you as well)

I hope you had a wonderful week as I did. I also hope that this blog isn't surrealistic and every time you read this you don't think: "Oh Devan just has a perfect spiritual life and never has a hard day in his life" Although I only highlight was I have learned during the week.  My life, just as well as yours, has ups and downs. There are hardships and disappointments. There are trials and roadblocks. I am positive that each of us are struggling in someway or another. What makes us different is what we do with each difficult moment and how we move foreword letting the Lord direct us.
Sometimes all we think we need is a miracle to make everything better. If I could just have this one thing in my life, all would be well, right? All of us could think of one thing that they wished they could have in their life or some event that they wish would happen right now. Have miracles ceased among the children of men? Of course not! We see left and right miracles that happen in others' lives but, why does that not happen to me? A scripture in Matthew this week helped me learn the principle of miracles, how they work and how I should seek them.
Matthew 8:2 "And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean"
Now let me provide some context for this verse because I love it. This is right after Christ finishes His Sermon on the Mount. He has just taught His fellow Jews the real power and meaning behind the Law of Moses that most have not even thought about. So you can imagine Jesus walking off the mountain with this "multitude" behind him. All of the sudden, a leper appears and is walking towards them. Now, we all like to think if a diseased person walked toward us, we would have the compassion necessary to ask what they need. The truth is, most of us would probably feel disgust with an approaching leper that could possibly infect you. Not to mention the tradition of the Jews that if you touched a leper, you had to cleanse yourself in the temple not soon after. So traditionally and maybe just common sense says, "Do not touch the leper". You can almost feel the crowd behind Jesus gasp as He reaches out to heal this leper.
The point that I would like to make is in the words of the leper and how this shows us what we can really ask Jesus when we want a miracle. The truth is that many of our prayers remain unanswered and there is no way of knowing if we will ever receive our miracle. So what can we do? "Lord" we can worship. We can give thanks to the person that gave us life. We can worship the person that allowed us to become cleansed from sin and have the power to overcome it. "If thou wilt" As hard as it is too accept, we must be ready to not receive a miracle. His thoughts are not our thoughts; His timing is not our timing. "Thou canst make me clean" Despite of receiving a miracle or not, we must have full faith and full hope that whatever the miracle that the Lord can perform it. We must stray away from thinking that miracles just happen to other people. They can happen to us because we have faith that nothing is impossible with the Lord.
What does this mean for us today? When we kneel down to ask for a miracle, we can think of the begging leper. We can be full of faith that the Lord can perform this miracle but at the same time accept if we are not granted such a miracle. By so doing, our faith is increased in the glorious plan of our Heavenly Father. He is the master architect and maybe someday we will be a tool in His vast work.

I apologize that this was a little longer. I hope it brightens your day!

-Devan Alder

 

Strength in Prayer

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines!
This week was wonderful! It was filled to the brim with work and activities which can make it exciting and stressful at the same time. Sometimes, since we all get busy, the activities pile up and we seem to want to take a break or rest for a little bit. Of course rest is necessary and I do not think resting is bad but, sometimes it's a distraction, right? I certainly felt that many times this week. One particular night I was feeling tired and knew that I still needed to study for and take a test before the night was over. I studied for a small time and found myself not concentrating because I was so exhausted from the day's activities. The thought came to my mind: "Just rest for a little and then you can take your test." This was tempting but then another thought entered my mind, "You haven't studied the scriptures today." The spirit was right; I hadn't studied yet. I grabbed my Book of Mormon and started to read and suddenly I had enough energy to complete the task at hand!
The scripture that we studied this week in class came to my mind: "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6. This means, at least to me, that if our focus is on doing the right, the Lord will fill that desire. I am well aware that the Spirit can tell you to take a nap, so take it! But managing my time that day was what I was searching for and the Lord helped me. He can help each of us if our daily focus is on Him and on the Kingdom. As we strive to do what is right, we will be filled. Filled doesn't mean that we will be happy all the time. It means satisfied that the Lord approves of what we are doing. I sure do love this gospel and pray that I may serve even better.

Devan Alder 

Hearts of the Fathers and Sons

Was this week a good week? Yes, it was an amazing week and I can hardly wait to get it down on "paper". I hope I can contain my excitement for all the many wonderful things that happened this week and this is an enjoyable reading experience and not just a waste of time for those who happen to  click here. I almost do not know where to start.
Saturday morning I had the pleasure to attend the temple with immediate and extended family. After our time their, this scripture came to my mind, which I am sure comes to many minds when they attend the temple. Malachi 4:6 "And he call turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" This gorgeous scripture, for those who don't know, is about how that in these times before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us have the duty to look back at our ancestors and remember them. This remembrance can help us to be better people now because of what and who they were. This also means that we can help them by doing saving ordinances on their behalf. We can also turn our hearts to our children (present or future, depending where you are in life) and strive to serve them or vis versa with children serving their parents. There is a special spirit around this type of service and this is what I felt in the temple. Although it may be personal what occurs in the temple, this must be written down. I felt a warm spirit being baptized by my father and right after baptizing him and addressing him as "Brother". Later, I baptized my dear cousin whose mother's name (my aunt) is Charlotte. The last person's name that my cousin was baptized for was named "Charlotte Haslam". The spirit testified to me that this work was true and that every person has significance in the sight of God. He knows us and loves us each individually and He loves us as families. The perspective that we gain looking back at our ancestors can be helpful in our every day-life decisions. There is no better feeling than being in a family.
I am well aware that no one has a perfect family but I believe we have many families. Just today, I gathered with my Stake Family at our Stake Conference. We laughed and cried together as we learned from the spirit that no matter who we are or where we are at, the Lord expects us to be lights to this world and grow brighter and brighter. We learned the only way we get ourself into trouble is through our thoughts and that the only way to get ourselves OUT of trouble is through our thoughts.

Life is rough, but it was meant to be that way and we were never supposed to do it alone.

Love you and more importantly Heavenly Father loves you.
-Devan Alder

Obedience equals happiness

If you haven't seen in the past couple posts, this year's theme for me is obedience. As I study the scriptures this year, I come across common themes that the Lord is really wants me to hear. This is week's personal study brought me to study Ephesians chapter six. One of the footnotes took me to 2 Corinthians 10:5 which says:"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ..." I really loved this scripture as soon as I read it. I believe this is a wonderful parallel with our premortal life. It was Satan that tried to exalt himself over God the Father. Jesus Christ was the one that gave the glory to His Father. Satan was then cast down and out of the presence of the Premortal world. As so should be the thoughts that we have. If we find a thought that is raising itself above the Lord, it should be cast out. If a thought is bringing glory to God, keep it and cherish it. What a wonderful way to fight against temptations of this world. The root of temptation is thought and if we can "Look unto [him], doubt not, fear not", we can overcome the root of sin. I personally believe this is why the prophets have told us to read the Book of Mormon everyday so that we may have control of our thoughts. 

You've got to love the gospel and the scriptures. 

Have a wonderful week!  

Willing to Keep the Commandments

I guess I need to apologize for not posting this last week. It just skipped my mind but I did post something, just not on Facebook. 

Well I certainly had a wonderful week! Personally I learned that spirituality is like a motivational force; the more you have, the more you can do!

I was reading and studying this week about Adam and Eve (I'm pretty sure that most of the church has been studying this around the same time). I came across Moses 5:6 "And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me." We have heard this scripture a lot in the church as an object lesson for obedience. I also believe that that this is a principle that we all experience during our life times. There is always one, or some, commandments that are either tedious to keep or come with no apparent reason behind the commandment. This is happened to me but, I always find comfort knowing that in the future (most likely not by an angel) we will find out the "why" we are keeping that particular commandment. It is nice to note that in the scripture is says, "after many days". I may not know the reason I should keep a commandment but, if I do, I will find out in the near future and receive blessings for keeping it. Does not this lesson remind you of John 7:17? If I want to know if a teaching is from God, all I need to do is act and I will know by the Holy Ghost that it is from God. I hope we may all keep the small commandments so we can see the big blessings that follow.

Have a wonderful week!

Devan Alder

Just Do It

No this isn't an advertisement for Nike. Although, anything can happen on the internet right? So Nike if you see this and feel gracious enough to pay me- I probably won't refuse. All joking aside, this week has been a great one. We've got a new prophet, we've got more traveling brethren now, and priests and laurels can do more in the temple. I've certainly been uplifted from daily scripture study and weekly "Monson study". This semester, I've decided to study the talks of former Prophet Thomas S. Monson. I started with his most earlier talks to hear the well known phrases like: "When we are on the Lord's errand, we have a right to His help" and "whom the Lord calls, He qualifies". I have testimony of our prophet but I guess it's time to receive a personal witness.
This week in my religion class, we were of course talking about the role of Jesus Christ before He came to this earth. Since the beginning, we were taught "the gospel of Jesus Christ". We do not know all that we learned but we get a taste from the scriptures we read. Like 3 Nephi 27:21: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even shall ye do". It is evident that this gospel is to have faith, repent, be baptized in His name, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. I believe that this verse also means that we were taught what we were to do in the church long before we came to this earth. We received our "first lessons" before coming to this earth and I believe that this gospel was one of the big topics that were taught. When we are struggling with a decision, action, or trial, we can look to our beginnings with comfort. We "know the things that [we] must do in [His] church". We already know and all we need to do is find our connection with Our Savior to find the answer or comfort. All we have to do is "do it". Where do we find the power to do so though? As prophets of old and new have declared, we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ to give us power beyond our ability to "just do it". This is easier said than done but it's possible through Him.

I hope and prayer that all may continue to have spiritual filled weeks.

Devan Alder

Mission Over?

I'm not sure why it took me this long to figure this out but, the mission didn't end when I was released as a missionary. Was not Christ a missionary after He left this Earth? Being a missionary is just a volunteer of time in order to grow spiritually while bring others along the journey. Why does it have to stop? I still have spiritual experiences weekly! Why not continue to Light The World? I've decided to keep my weekly letter of spirituality going for myself and those who may need it. Most of my experiences happen in my religious classes studying the scriptures but hopefully that won't be the end of my experiences.

This past week, I began to study Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel. I have a wonderful professor who allows the spirit to be present every class. We opened up to Moses 1 to talk about the differences between God, Satan, and us in this chapter. The irony is that this was the topic in last week's Sunday School. My first thought was: "What more can I take from this chapter?" That thought was turned on its head immediately. My favorite verse was Moses 1:21 "And now Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses received strength, and called upon God saying: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan." There is much to learn from this one verse. I first thought that the only way to beat Satan was through Jesus Christ. Although that is true, there is more to the story. Moses had just seen God and had a wonderful spiritual experience. Of course, Satan comes tempting right after a spiritual high. Moses resists three times saying "depart, Satan" but he never leaves. On the fourth try, Moses uses the name of Jesus Christ and Satan finally departs. The lesson for life is that God never intended that we beat Satan alone. Of course we need courage on our own part. We need to show our strength in the side of adversity but, the plan never meant for us to fight alone. We must always call upon the Lord when we are tempted. Without Him, we may tire and give up fighting the fiery darts but, He is there. "Where shall I find Him? Where shall I seek? He is here and now. Jesus YOUR Savior" I definitely needed this scripture this week. I hope you do too.





Devan Alder