Easter Week: Wednesday -- Betrayal

Christ the Redeemer, Brazil
We need Christ always.

Judas Iscariot.  The Betrayer.  Someone who was supposed to be a friend, but who loved money more than Jesus.  Jesus, who is the Son of the Most High God.  Who created everything, including the silver that the money Judas coveted was made from. 

Have you ever been betrayed?  Have you thought someone was your friend, only to find that they cared for something or someone else more than they cared about you?  Have you ever been the betrayer?  The person that someone trusted, who ended up being untrustworthy?

Jesus, who was betrayed, is the very one who can help and heal those who have been betrayed who are hurting and broken, and forgive and lift the betrayer who is also hurting and broken.  He understands being betrayed and the healing power of forgiveness, and He knows the motivations behind betrayal and the healing power of repentance.

All of us will fill both roles in our lifetime -- the betrayer and the betrayed.  Maybe we will yell, and be angry when love and understanding were called for.  Maybe we will be late in helping when someone really needed us to be on time.  Maybe we will gossip, and betray a trust through our words.  At other times we might be the one who is hurt by someones words, or actions.  We need Christ in both instances.  We need Him in every instance! 

Today I will be grateful for Christ, who I need every minute of every hour, and who is never the betrayer.

*Photo by Robert Nyman on Unsplash

Giving God Control

I read somewhere that we should give control of our lives to God, and so I was contemplating what that means and what it looks like.  It's not a big shock to me or anyone else that He's smarter, wiser, and more knowledgeable than everyone on the planet, so it makes sense to give control to Him.  I also know that giving Him control does NOT look like me sitting around waiting for Him to decide what I should wear, tell me exactly how to help everyone, and take away my problems!

God gave me the ability to choose, and He wants me to use it.  I believe that giving control to Him means that I use my will to choose Him, and His way. I trust Him in all circumstances.  I believe Him and His word and that keeping the commandments is the happy way to live.  I use my agency to think, do, and say things that honor Him.  I take time to listen for His guidance, and to follow it.  When I make mistakes, and sin, giving control to God is repenting -- letting Him heal me.

In short, giving control to God simply means that I use the agency He gave me to choose to give up what I think is best, to do what He knows is best.  Elder Maxwell's quote is a good summation:

In striving for ultimate submission, our wills constitute all we really have to give God anyway.

Neal A. Maxwell

The Happiness of Repentance

Repentance = Getting back on the path to God.

I heard a definition of sin and repentance that I find helpful.  Sin is anything that has us turning away from God, and Repentance is turning back towards God.  Sin gets us off the path, and repentance gets us back.

Sometimes we seem to believe that beating ourselves up about whatever we have thought, said, or done wrong is required for forgiveness, but if we are traveling any road, and we get beaten up, it makes getting where we want to go harder.  Obviously we need to recognize that we have turned away from God, and it is okay to feel bad, but beating ourselves up isn't feeling bad.  It's feeling bad and then tearing ourselves down too.  It is telling ourselves we are stupid, and that our mistake has made us unsalvageable, or not worth saving.  It is denying that Christ's atonement can reach us, which takes us even farther away from God.

I have been the queen of beating myself up on occasion, never stopping to think of this as a lack of faith in Christ.  It isn't until relatively recently that I realized what a joyful thing it is to recognize a sin so that I have the opportunity to turn back towards God!  This morning I read in Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:...".  I do not like getting "in trouble" and have often wondered how being corrected by God could be happy -- but it is!  He can help us see where we have turned away from Him, and He will help us turn back to Him.  He is love -- and turning back towards love is happy!

**Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash