The way back to God is easy
Sometimes I hear the quote "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." Some people mistakenly think it's scripture. It's not. The quote is attributed to Mae West who was an "American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol." She lived from August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West
Does it seem a little odd that a quote from a "sex symbol" is mistaken to be scripture? Or that it's layered onto a picture of the Savior?
Maybe it helps some people feel better about themselves and their challenges.
Here's the reality:
Did you catch that? Alma told his son, "it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ" as it is to follow a compass.
A couple verses later (verse 46) he continues:
Our natural man wants to rebel and do what it perceives are "fun" things. Our natural man believes the commandments of God must be confining and restricting, and to disobey is liberating.
But the truth is the opposite. There is a perceived increase of freedom at first, when commandments are disobeyed. However, the chains of becoming locked into bad and immoral habits and tendencies ends up restricting our freedom more than obedience ever will.
In fact, obedience to God's commandments keeps us free and it expands our abilities.
Verse 46 was referencing Moses and the Israelites when the fiery, flying serpents bit and sickened many of the Hebrews. Moses made a serpent mounted it on his staff, and all the the people had to do was to look up and they'd be healed. It was so easy that many Israelites didn't look and died because they didn't want to believe it was that easy.
There are many examples in the scriptures that show the "easiness of the way" but we're too stubborn and prideful to accept the truth. So we make it harder on ourselves.
Remember, it is the adversary that wants us to believe the way back to God is hard, when the truth is it's easy. The hardest part is for us to let go of the natural man, and too many of us don't want to do that. We want the path back to God to allow us to keep some of our natural man.
Does it seem a little odd that a quote from a "sex symbol" is mistaken to be scripture? Or that it's layered onto a picture of the Savior?
Maybe it helps some people feel better about themselves and their challenges.
Here's the reality:
"For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land." - Alma 37:44https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/37?lang=eng
Did you catch that? Alma told his son, "it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ" as it is to follow a compass.
A couple verses later (verse 46) he continues:
"O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever."Our problem is not the way. Our problem is the natural man and our mistaken belief that it can't be that easy, and there must be something harder we're missing.
Our natural man wants to rebel and do what it perceives are "fun" things. Our natural man believes the commandments of God must be confining and restricting, and to disobey is liberating.
But the truth is the opposite. There is a perceived increase of freedom at first, when commandments are disobeyed. However, the chains of becoming locked into bad and immoral habits and tendencies ends up restricting our freedom more than obedience ever will.
In fact, obedience to God's commandments keeps us free and it expands our abilities.
Verse 46 was referencing Moses and the Israelites when the fiery, flying serpents bit and sickened many of the Hebrews. Moses made a serpent mounted it on his staff, and all the the people had to do was to look up and they'd be healed. It was so easy that many Israelites didn't look and died because they didn't want to believe it was that easy.
There are many examples in the scriptures that show the "easiness of the way" but we're too stubborn and prideful to accept the truth. So we make it harder on ourselves.
Remember, it is the adversary that wants us to believe the way back to God is hard, when the truth is it's easy. The hardest part is for us to let go of the natural man, and too many of us don't want to do that. We want the path back to God to allow us to keep some of our natural man.
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