Repent and turn unto me
I absolutely love teaching Sunday School. It is such a blessing. I gain so much from reading, preparing, and leading the lesson discussion. Each week, I learn so many new things that I had overlooked in the past.
Today, we were studying Helaman 13-16. There was one phrase in one scripture where we ended up focusing most of our attention as a class. I wish I could record all the wonderful comments that were shared today.
Helaman 13:11 reads, "But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto him that repenteth not."
"Repent and turn unto me"
We talked about how repentance was more than abstaining from the sin.
President Ezra Taft Benson taught:
"Repentance means more than simply a reformation of behavior. Many men and women in the world demonstrate great will-power and self-discipline in overcoming bad habits and the weaknesses of the flesh. Yet at the same time they give no thought to the Master, sometimes even openly rejecting Him. Such changes of behavior, even if in a positive direction, do not constitute true repentance...
"...True repentance is based on a flows from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. True repentance involves a change of heart and not just a change of behavior (see Alma 5:13)" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 71).
As the class members were discussing what it meant to attempt to repent without turning to the Lord, a young man shared this analogy.
Imagine you are at a barbecue. The sandwich you are enjoying represents sin. As you partake, sauce from the sandwich drips and stains your t-shirt. You decide to set the sandwich down. The stains stop occurring but the others stains are still there. It isn't until we wash the shirt (occasionally requiring much effort) that it becomes clean.
Those of us who stop committing a sin do stop the sin from continuing to taint our soul, but our soul is still unclean. It isn't until we wash our spirits by turning to the Lord in true repentance that we can be made clean. It is only then that our guilt can be replaced with peace.
After turning to the Lord and forsaking our sins, we can have an experience similar to that of Alma the younger. He was "harrowed up by the memory of [his] sins" but remembered what his father had taught him of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He cry unto the Lord, confessing and forsaking his sin. His repentance was sincere and he "could remember [his] pains no more." In fact, his exceeding pain was replaced with joy as exceeding. Nothing could be as exquisite as the joy he was experiencing.
Turn to the Lord in your repentance. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. Not only did he overcome physical death with the resurrection, he overcame spiritual death (the separation from God) in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do not continue to carry the weight of your sins. Confess them and forsake them.
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Today, we were studying Helaman 13-16. There was one phrase in one scripture where we ended up focusing most of our attention as a class. I wish I could record all the wonderful comments that were shared today.
Helaman 13:11 reads, "But if ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord; yea, thus saith the Lord, blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me, but wo unto him that repenteth not."
"Repent and turn unto me"
We talked about how repentance was more than abstaining from the sin.
President Ezra Taft Benson taught:
"Repentance means more than simply a reformation of behavior. Many men and women in the world demonstrate great will-power and self-discipline in overcoming bad habits and the weaknesses of the flesh. Yet at the same time they give no thought to the Master, sometimes even openly rejecting Him. Such changes of behavior, even if in a positive direction, do not constitute true repentance...
"...True repentance is based on a flows from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. True repentance involves a change of heart and not just a change of behavior (see Alma 5:13)" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 71).
As the class members were discussing what it meant to attempt to repent without turning to the Lord, a young man shared this analogy.
Imagine you are at a barbecue. The sandwich you are enjoying represents sin. As you partake, sauce from the sandwich drips and stains your t-shirt. You decide to set the sandwich down. The stains stop occurring but the others stains are still there. It isn't until we wash the shirt (occasionally requiring much effort) that it becomes clean.
Those of us who stop committing a sin do stop the sin from continuing to taint our soul, but our soul is still unclean. It isn't until we wash our spirits by turning to the Lord in true repentance that we can be made clean. It is only then that our guilt can be replaced with peace.
After turning to the Lord and forsaking our sins, we can have an experience similar to that of Alma the younger. He was "harrowed up by the memory of [his] sins" but remembered what his father had taught him of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He cry unto the Lord, confessing and forsaking his sin. His repentance was sincere and he "could remember [his] pains no more." In fact, his exceeding pain was replaced with joy as exceeding. Nothing could be as exquisite as the joy he was experiencing.
Turn to the Lord in your repentance. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. Not only did he overcome physical death with the resurrection, he overcame spiritual death (the separation from God) in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do not continue to carry the weight of your sins. Confess them and forsake them.
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
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