SUBMISSIVE AS CHRIST
What about Christ do I
want to emulate in my life? When I make a decision, do I ask myself, “What
would Christ do?” How can I become a better disciple of Christ?
Matthew 26:39, 42
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Moses 4:2
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D&C 109:44
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Hymns No. 188
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2 Nephi 7:7-9
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James 4:7
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Mosiah 3:19
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Mosiah 21:13
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Alma 7:23
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Helaman 3:35
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SUBMISSIVE AS CHRIST QUOTES
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES
1 Pet. 2:13
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Submit yourselves to every ordinance
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2 Ne. 9:29
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Learned is good if they hearken unto
the counsels of God
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Alma 13:28
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Led by the Holy Spirit, becoming …
submissive
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2 Chr. 30:8
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Yield yourselves unto the Lord
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D&C 67:10
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Humble yourselves before me
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THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST
“His disciple’s request that Jesus teach them to pray, the Savior
responded: “When ye pray, say, … Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in
heaven, so in earth”[1].
As mortals, it is our nature to be concerned about our immediate physical
needs. We often skip over this instruction regarding Heavenly Father’s
omniscience; rather, we express our gratitude and go directly to our requests.
The phrases “We ask thee …” or “Bless us that …” seem to fall effortlessly from
our lips. “Thy will be done” is frequently more of an afterthought, if mentioned
at all. This should not be so. The
pattern of prayer taught by Jesus recognizes that Heavenly Father comprehends
all things. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. We submit to Him because He is
able to do precisely what is needful for each of us. He is filled with infinite
love and the eternal perspective essential to resolving our needs in the proper
way. “Thy will be done” should be the crux of our petitions, for it is a
foundation stone upon which effectual prayer rests. Jesus exemplified this teaching
in Gethsemane when He prayed, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done”[2].[3]
“If we, like the Savior, have the faith to put our trust in our Father
in Heaven, to submit to His will, the true spirit of peace will come as a
witness and strength that He has heard and answered our prayers.”[4]
“What… does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and
to trust. To hope and trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility,
meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end. To
wait upon the Lord means planting the seed of faith and nourishing it “with
great diligence, and … patience.” It means praying as the Savior did—to God,
our Heavenly Father—saying: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” It is a
prayer we offer with our whole souls in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Waiting
upon the Lord means pondering in our hearts and “receiv[ing] the Holy Ghost” so
that we can know “all things what [we] should do.” As we follow the promptings
of the Spirit, we discover that “tribulation worketh patience” and we learn to
“continue in patience until [we] are perfected.” Waiting upon the Lord means to
“stand fast” and “press forward” in faith, “having a perfect brightness of
hope.” It means “relying alone upon the merits of Christ” and “with [His] grace
assisting [us, saying]: Thy will be done, O Lord, and not ours.” As we wait
upon the Lord, we are “immovable in keeping the commandments,” knowing that we
will “one day rest from all [our] afflictions.” And we “cast not away … [our]
confidence” that “all things wherewith [we] have been afflicted shall work
together for [our] good.”[5]
“The Savior’s perfect submission to the Eternal Father is the very
essence of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Christ’s example teaches us
that a broken heart is an eternal attribute of godliness. When our hearts are
broken, we are completely open to the Spirit of God and recognize our
dependence on Him for all that we have and all that we are. The sacrifice so
entailed is a sacrifice of pride in all its forms. Like malleable clay in the
hands of a skilled potter, the brokenhearted can be molded and shaped in the
hands of the Master.”[6]
SUBMISSION IN ATTITUDE & THOUGHT
“As the Lord’s will is my will all the time, as he dictates so I will
perform.”[7]
“Yielding one’s heart to God signals the last stage in our spiritual
development. Only then are we beginning to be fully useful to God! How can we
sincerely pray to be an instrument in His hands if the instrument seeks to do
the instructing? As we really begin to keep the first commandment—loving God
with “all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength”[8]—giving
time, talent, and treasure is then accompanied by fully giving of ourselves.”[9]
“The submission of one’s will is
really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The
many other things we “give,” brothers and sisters, are actually the things He
has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves,
by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are
really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours
to give!”[10]
“Every individual intelligence is possessed of a will, which is a
propelling power within himself. Good and evil are placed before us, and we
have to choose between them… When we entered into the fulness of the
Gospel—into a sacred and holy covenant with God, we virtually agreed to
surrender our will to him; we agreed to place ourselves under his direction,
guidance, dictation, and counsel, that our will should be merged in his. Hence
we are in duty bound, and it is for our best interest to strive to attain to
that state of mind and feeling that we shall have no will of our own,
independent of the will of our Father in heaven, and say in all things,
“Father, not mine, but thy will be done.”[11]
“President George Q. Cannon [spoke] of going to a priesthood meeting…
with hearts prepared in the way he described in these words:
“I should enter that assembly
with my mind entirely free from all influence that would prevent the operation
of the Spirit of God upon me. I should go in a prayerful spirit, asking God to
write upon my heart His will; not with my own will already prepared, and
determined to carry out my will …, regardless of everyone else’s views. If I
were to go, and all the rest were to go, with this spirit, then the Spirit of
God would be felt in our midst, and that which we would decide upon would be
the mind and will of God, because God would reveal it to us. We would see light
in the direction where we should go, and we would behold darkness in the
direction we should not go” (Deseret Semi-Weekly News, 30 Sept. 1890, 2;
emphasis added).”[12]
“As the Lord communicates with the meek and submissive, fewer decibels
are required, and more nuances are received. Even the most meek, like Moses[13],
learn overwhelming things they “never had supposed.”[14]
But it is only the meek mind which can be so shown and so stretched—not those,
as Isaiah wrote, who “are wise in their own eyes.’[15]”[16]
“It is through submission to the will of our Father in heaven that we
receive all of the blessings that are essential for our welfare and our
happiness and our advancement in his kingdom. Following the resurrection, in
which we shall participate, we shall stand before the judgment bar of God with
our record before us—one I hope of which we shall be proud, one which will
entitle us to associate with those of our loved ones who have gone to the great
beyond, and who will be there to welcome us. May we all enjoy the blessings and
the privileges which we desire through our obedience to the laws and ordinances
of the gospel. If we can become entirely submissive and obedient to the will of
our Heavenly Father, our problems will be solved temporally and spiritually.”[17]
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE FATHER & SON
The
following is an excerpt from a talk given by Elder Neal A Maxwell to CES
Religious Educators, February 3, 1995
No father ever had a more superb son. No son ever had a more exemplary
father. In their unique majesty is an elegant meekness. In their special
oneness they are mutually deferential of each other. Jesus always honored His
perfect Father, including by emulating His Father.
“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise”[18].
When people sought to praise Jesus, He said, “Why callest thou me good?
there is none good but one, that is, God”[19].
When people marveled at Jesus’ doctrine, He quickly deferred, saying, “My
doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me”[20]
Christ instructed us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in
heaven is perfect”[21].
As in His earlier premortal obedience, the Savior’s ultimate submissiveness
occurred when the “will of the Son [was] swallowed up in the will of the
Father”[22].
The Father was ever quick to praise Jesus, saying on more than one
occasion, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”[23].
In a rare instance, where the voice of the Father was heard, note the words
used: “And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my
Beloved are true and faithful”[24].
The mutuality of their divinity reflects the mutuality of their meekness and
their love!
SUBMISSION IN PRAYER
“Our goal when we teach our children to pray is for them to want God to
write upon their hearts and be willing then to go and do what God asks of them.
It is possible for our children to have faith enough, from what they see us do
and what we teach, that they can feel at least part of what the Savior felt as
He prayed to have the strength to make His infinite sacrifice for us: “And he
went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but
as thou wilt”[25].”[26]
“How grateful I am personally that our Savior taught we should conclude
our most urgent, deeply felt prayers, when we ask for that which is of utmost
importance to us, with “Thy will be done”[27].
Your willingness to accept the will of the Father will not change what in His
wisdom He has chosen to do. However, it will certainly change the effect of
those decisions on you personally. That evidence of the proper exercise of
agency allows His decisions to produce far greater blessings in your life. I
have found that because of our Father’s desire for us to grow, He may give us
gentle, almost imperceptible promptings that, if we are willing to accept
without complaint, He will enlarge to become a very clear indication of His
will. This enlightenment comes because of our faith and our willingness to do
what He asks even though we would desire something else. Our Father in Heaven
has invited you to express your needs, hopes, and desires unto Him. That should
not be done in a spirit of negotiation, but rather as a willingness to obey His
will no matter what direction that takes. His invitation, “Ask, and ye shall
receive”[28]
does not assure that you will get what you want. It does guarantee that, if
worthy, you will get what you need, as judged by a Father that loves you
perfectly, who wants your eternal happiness even more than do you.”[29]
SUBMISSIVE IN ADVERSITY
“To obtain the desired happiness on this earth and in the world to
come, we must steadfastly face trials and tribulations regardless of the form
they take, with the spirit, ‘Thy will be done, not mine.’ The Savior again set
the pattern in this respect. No martyr ever approached death with greater
courage and dignity than did Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.”[30]
“As one’s will is increasingly submissive to the will of God, he can
receive inspiration and revelation so much needed to help meet the trials of
life. In the trying and very defining Isaac episode, faithful Abraham “staggered
not … through unbelief”[31].
Of that episode John Taylor observed that “nothing but the spirit of revelation
could have given him this confidence, and … sustained him under these peculiar
circumstances”[32].
Will we too trust the Lord amid a perplexing trial for which we have no easy
explanation? Do we understand — really comprehend — that Jesus knows and
understands when we are stressed and perplexed? The complete consecration which
effected the Atonement ensured Jesus’ perfect empathy; He felt our very pains
and afflictions before we did and knows how to succor us[33].
Since the Most Innocent suffered the most, our own cries of “Why?” cannot match
His. But we can utter the same submissive word ‘nevertheless …’.”[34]
“The Lord is intent on your personal growth and development. That
progress is accelerated when you willingly allow Him to lead you through every
growth experience you encounter, whether initially it be to your individual
liking or not. When you trust in the Lord, when you are willing to let your
heart and your mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the
Spirit to do His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way
and the most fulfilling attainment from this mortal experience. If you question
everything you are asked to do, or dig in your heels at every unpleasant
challenge, you make it harder for the Lord to bless you.”[35]
“Life is often difficult. There are trials, disappointments,
challenges, sickness, unemployment even for the Saints. These must be borne
with submissive patience, for often these trials are evidence of the Lord’s
hand preparing us to be worthy of living with him. To yield to Christ means to
put him and his teachings first. The total submission of our will to his is one
of the most difficult obstacles we face on our journey toward eternal life. The
rewards of this submission are beautifully described by President Ezra Taft
Benson:
“Men and women who
turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of
their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision,
quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply
their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up
friends, and pour out peace.” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, 1988, p. 361.)”[38]
HUMILITY
AND SUBMISSION
“True humility, in my opinion,
implies acknowledgment, thanksgiving, prayerfulness, all those virtues which
become a Latter-day Saint. It is becoming to an individual no matter what his
status in life, to acknowledge the Lord for his goodness and for his mercy, to
be humble and prayerful and submissive to his will. True humility is uplifting,
ennobling.”[39]
“Humility and submissiveness to
the Lord, coupled with a grateful heart, are our strength and our hope.”[40]
“Humbly submitting our will to
the Father brings us the empowerment of God—the power of humility. It is the
power to meet life’s adversities, the power of peace, the power of hope, the
power of a heart throbbing with a love for and testimony of the Savior Jesus
Christ, even the power of redemption. To this end, the Savior is our supreme
example of the power of humility and submissiveness. After all, His submitting
His will to the Father brought about the greatest, and even the most powerful,
event in all of history. Perhaps some of the most sacred words in all the
scriptures are simply, ‘Not my will, but thine, be done’[41].”[42]
“True humility will inevitably lead us to say to God, “Thy will be
done.” And because what we are does affect what we do, our submissiveness will
be reflected in our reverence, gratitude, and willingness to accept callings,
counsel, and correction.”[43]
“Jesus achieved perfect unity with the Father by submitting Himself,
both flesh and spirit, to the will of the Father. His ministry was always
clearly focused because there was no debilitating or distracting
double-mindedness in Him. Referring to His Father, Jesus said, “I do always
those things that please him”[44]
… Surely we will not be one with God and Christ until we make Their will and
interest our greatest desire. Such submissiveness is not reached in a day, but
through the Holy Spirit, the Lord will tutor us if we are willing until, in
process of time, it may accurately be said that He is in us as the Father is in
Him. At times I tremble to consider what may be required, but I know that it is
only in this perfect union that a fulness of joy can be found.”[45]
ADDITIONAL
QUOTES
“Jesus, who, by far, suffered the most, has the most compassion for all of us who suffer so much less. Moreover, He, who
suffered the most, has no self-pity! Instead of self-pity, even as He endured
the enormous suffering associated with the Atonement, He reached out to others
in their lesser suffering. Consider how, in Gethsemane, Jesus, who had just bled
at every pore, nevertheless, restored an assailant’s severed ear, which, given
Jesus’ own agony, He might not have noticed![46]
“Consider how Jesus, while hanging so painfully on the cross,
instructed the Apostle John about caring for Jesus’ mother, Mary (see John
19:26–27). Consider how, in the midst of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement,
Jesus, nevertheless, reassured one of the thieves on the cross, “To day shalt
thou be with me in paradise”[47].
He cared, even in the midst of enormous suffering. He reached outwardly when a
lesser being would have turned inwardly.
“Yet, in His later description of His agonies, Jesus did not speak of
those things. Instead, after the Atonement, there was no mention about His
being spat upon, being struck, or of the proffered vinegar and gall. Instead,
Christ confides in us His chief anxiety, namely, that He “would that I might
not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:18)—especially desiring not
to get part way through the Atonement and then pull back.
“Mercifully for all of us, He “finished [His] preparations unto the
children of men” (D&C 19:19). Jesus partook of history’s bitterest cup
without becoming bitter!”[51]
SUBMISSIVE AS CHRIST - ADDITIONAL NOTES
[1]
Luke 11:2
[2]
Luke 22:42
[3]
Keith B McMullin, Words of Jesus: Prayer, Ensign, January 2003
[4]
Rex D Pinegar, Peace Through Prayer, Ensign, May 1993
[5]
Robert D Hales, Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will be Done, Ensign, November 2011
[6]
Bruce D Porter, A Broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit, Ensign, November 2007
[7]
President Brigham Young, Millennial Star, vol. 10, p. 115, quoted by Franklin D
Richards, Thy Will Be Don O Lord, Ensign, January 1973
[8]
D&C 59:5; see also Matt. 22:37
[9]
Neal A Maxwell, Willing to Submit, Ensign, May 1985
[10]
Neal A Maxwell, Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father, Ensign, 1995
[11]
Erastus Snow, A Discourse Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,
January 5, 1860.
[12]
Henry B Eyring, Write Upon My Heart, Ensign, November 2000
[13]
see Num. 12:3
[14]
Moses 1:10.)
[15]
Isa. 5:21; see also 2 Ne. 9:29 and 2 Ne. 15:21.
[16]
Neal A Maxwell, Willing to Submit, Ensign, May 1985
[17]
Henry D Moyle, Conference Report, April 1950
[18]
John 5:19
[19]
Mark 10:18
[20]
John 7:16; see also Matthew 7:28; 22:33
[21]
Matthew 5:48
[22]
Mosiah 15:7
[23]
Matthew 3:17; 17:5; see also 3 Nephi 11:7; Joseph Smith—History 1:17
[24]
2 Nephi 31:15
[25]
Matt. 26:39
[26]
Henry B Eyring, Write Upon My Heart, Ensign, November 2000
[27]
Matt. 26:42
[28]
3 Ne. 27:29
[29]
Richard G Scott, Trust in the Lord, Ensign, November 1995
[30]
Franklin D Richards, Thy Will Be Done O Lord, Ensign, January 1973
[31]
Rom. 4:20
[32]
in Journal of Discourses, 14:361
[33]
see Alma 7:11–12; 2 Ne. 9:21
[34]
Neal A Maxwell, Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father, Ensign, 1995
[35]
Richard G Scott, Finding Joy in Life, Ensign, May 1996
[36]
Alma 31:38
[37]
Neal A Maxwell, Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father, Ensign, 1995
[38]
Lowell D Wood, Come Unto Christ, Ensign, May 1993
[39]
ElRay L Christiansen, Conference Report, April 1953
[40]
Richard C Edgley, The Empowerment of Humility, Ensign, November 2003
[41]
Luke 22:42
[42]
Richard C Edgley, The Empowerment of Humility, Ensign, November 2003
[43]
Marlin K Jensen, To Walk Humbly with Thy God, Ensign, May 2001
[44]
John 8:29
[45]
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, That They May Be One in Us, Ensign, Nov. 2002
[46]
Luke 22:50–51
[47]
Luke 23:43
[48]
1 Nephi 19:9
[49]
Mosiah 3:9
[50]
Psalm 69:3
[51]
Neal A Maxwell, O How Great the Plan of Our God!, Address to CES Religious
Educators, 3 Feb 1995, Temple Square Assembly Hall
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