1 nephi 16:1 - 16
what do you think it means that "the guilty taketh the truth to be hard"?
--> verse 3 explains this comment a little better: "and now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth and say: thou speakest hard things against us."
i'll give an example from my own life of how i've seen this principle to be true. i know that i should be reading my scriptures every single day. i've known it since i was 2. but do i do it everyday? no. studying the scriptures is something that's so hard for me for some reason. there have been periods in my life where i didn't struggle at all with this, and other times when i go weeks without opening the book. i hate that. during the times that i'm not reading, i find the commandment to read everyday SO hard. i find excuses and justifications and rationalize why i'm not doing it. and when anyone else talks about reading the scriptures or a cool insight they found or anything, i immediately put my defenses up and find reasons to justify myself because i feel guilty for not doing what i know is right and good. the guilt setting in is what makes the commandment seems difficult. when i'm not obeying the commandments, they seem hard and irrational.
on the flip side, when i AM following the commandments and doing what i know i should be doing, i am happy, at peace, and the commandments aren't so hard. do they take work? yes. but it goes back to that willingness that nephi talks about in verse 3 - when we are willing to give heed to the truth and listen to it with the intent to walk in God's right way and be pleasing to Him, then the commandments have purpose and meaning and don't seem so hard anymore. i think part of this is because we receive extra strength to complete and keep them, and part of this is because our understanding has grown, and we are able to overcome the natural man in us and see the greater purpose behind a commandment than just a restriction of an easier alternative.
does that make sense? it did in my brain... ;)
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