The Enabling Power of the Atonement

In the hours that followed the singles fireside with Matt Townsend, I was filled with an incredible abundance of the spirit. I truly wanted to change. I was excited to have a new perspective on life. I wanted to become perfect in all aspects of the gospel. I came home filled with love for my neighbors, my family, even the little bird that was sitting on the deck. It was an amazing feeling. Soon the distractions of the world started to creep in and that excitement and dedication to change decreased. When faced with the incredible task of changing my life to be inline with Gods, I felt overwhelmed, almost a little discouraged. If I couldn't keep the spirit with me for more than 10 minutes, how was I going to be able to change completely. I felt bad that my resolve didn't last longer and in hopes of getting it back I searched for articles about the atonement.

I came across an address by David A Bednar, given at a BYU devotional in 2001, entitled The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality. He explains what the enabling power of the atonement can do in our lives; "As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon." What does that mean? I thought about it for a long time and concluded that the natural man, me in my mortal state, will always tend to go the easy route, to give into temptation, to be acted upon by the outside forces that would see me follow the ways of the world. By recognizing that I have my own devices that will cause the Spirit of the Lord to leave, I can use enabling power of the Atonement to reject those temptations. I don't need to give in to the ways of the world. I can, with faith in Jesus Christ, push through those things that are hindering me. I can let my spiritual progression continue to move forward.

In Mosiah 3:19 we read, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord." We, by the nature of our mortal lives, subject to temptations, suffering, sin. We haven't done anything in our past life or present life to cause this to come upon us; it comes because we are here, on this earth, with bodies of flesh and bone. In 2 Nephi 2:15-16 the Lord's purpose for allowing us to experience these trials is laid out. "And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man... it must need be that there was an opposition...Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other."

How is that done? Why isn't it easy to give up the things that drive away the spirit? Elder Bednar quoted David O. McKay: " The purpose of the gospel is.. to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature." To quote Elder Bednar, "Thus the journey of mortality is to progress from bad to good to better and to experience the mighty change of heart- to have our fallen natures changed." On the night of my studying this topic, I tried to think of those things I did that were part of the "natural man" inside me. The list was shocking. As I mentioned in the first post, a sin is anything that would cause the Spirit of the Lord to depart from you. I have been thinking about my actions before I do them. Will this cause the spirit to depart? If yes, I pray to God that He will give me strength to overcome the desire. Most of the time that works. Other times, it really takes faith to either do or not do something.

One final thought by Elder Bednar before I end this entry. "The gospel of the Savior is not simply avoiding bad in our lives, it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Savior is available for the entire journey of mortality- from bad to good to better and to change our very nature."

My life has changed as I have studied this topic. I know that as I continue to apply the enabling power of the Atonement, my life will become more in line with Gods. The natural man inside me will disappear and my pure spirit will shine through. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.