The Lord’s Thoughts and Ways

We learn in Jacob 4:8 “great and marvelous are the works of the Lord.” The Lord is limitless. He can do anything and everything. The Lord is perfect. The Lord can heal the sick, he can raise the dead, and he can make the blind see. Most importantly he suffered immense pain, which you and I can never image, so we can be forgiven and live with God again.

This verse goes on to say that there are unsearchable depths of the mysteries of him and we will never fully find out all of his ways, unless it is revealed to us. There is so much that we do not know, about God, about the creation, about everything. There are so many unknowns in the world. Some things we are simply not going to know until they are revealed to us. It can be revealed through personal revelation and also through our modern day prophets.

We learn in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the natural man (which we are) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Because we are natural men, we will not fully understand the things of our Lord until we become resurrected beings.

Isaiah 55:8-9 and learn that “his thoughts are not our thoughts” and that “his ways are higher than our ways.” These are some of my favorite scriptures and I would like to share these verses specifically.

8) “For my thoughts are not your thought, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”

9) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We are often tempted to forget God and trust in our own wisdom or reject God’s way of doing things because they are not done as we think they should be done. We would usually never say out loud or admit to ourselves that we think our ideas are ‘better’ than God’s, but we ‘say’ this in our actions and choices. But it is important to remember that God’s ways, words and thoughts are not like ours, they are higher than ours.

“Elder John Taylor commented on the passage in Isaiah: “We know in part, and see in part, and comprehend in part; and many of the things of God are hid from our view, both things that are past, things that are present, and things that are to come. Hence the world in general sit in judgment upon the actions of God that are passing among them, they make use

of the weak judgment that God has given them to scan the designs of God, to unravel the mysteries that are past, and things that are still hid, forgetting that no man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God; forgetting that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; forgetting that no man in and of himself is competent to unravel the designs and know the purposes of Jehovah, whether in relation to the past, present, or future; and hence, forgetting this, they fall into all kinds of blunders; they blunder over things that are contained in the Scriptures, some of which are a representation of the follies and weaknesses of men, and some of them perhaps may be the wisdom and intelligence of God, that are as far above their wisdom and intelligence as the heavens are above the earth.””

These verses are definitely a source of comfort for me. God is our creator, He is our Father and he knows everything. He has a perfect knowledge; he knows things that we cannot even begin to understand. This is why he is the best person to have on our side, on our team. He can see things in our future, things that we will do and accomplish that we do not know or see at this time. He uses this knowledge to guide our lives and counsel us. Who better to trust then someone who see’s the bigger picture clearly? His ways are better and higher than our ways, and his thoughts are better and higher than our thoughts. I cannot think of anyone better or anyone I want more than him to be on my side and to trust my life with. This is what brings me comfort. This can bring us all comfort in different ways, I urge you to think of how this brings you comfort personally.

How can we come to better understand God’s thoughts and ways?  The easy answer to this question would be to submit our will to God’s will. This is easy to answer but not very easy to actually put into action. Like mentioned above it can be hard sometimes because we often trust in our own wisdom and/or reject God’s way of doing things because they are not done as we think they should be done. We need to consciously be aware of this and do everything in our power to turn our lives and our will over to the Lord. When we do this, our lives will be filled with more joy and love and peace. We will be blessed beyond measure and we will become more like our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ everyday. Submitting our will to God’s will is something we have to decide to do everyday. Every time we ask God for something we need to honestly mean and want that to happen if it is only his will, his time and his way.

There are many examples of ways that God’s ways are higher than man’s ways. There is the commandment we have to love our enemies. This goes against the natural man. We don’t want to love our enemies, we don’t want to do good to those who hurt us and persecute us but we are commanded to because God’s ways are higher than our ways. Another example that I can think of is the story of Abraham and Isaac. It wasn’t Abraham’s way to almost sacrifice his son to try his faith it was God’s. What about a couple not being able to get pregnant? What about the death of a child? These are not man’s ways but God’s ways and sometimes that hurts and sometimes we will never understand them. But knowing that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts gives me comfort to know that even when I don’t understand and when it hurts, there is a purpose and a plan, there is something to learn and to grow from. It is never in vain, it is never for nothing, and it is always for a higher purpose and for a higher plan. God see’s the whole picture and we just see through the tiny lens of right now.

Be Still, My Soul (124)

Lyrics

1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;


With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.


Leave to thy God to order and provide;


In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.


Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend


Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake


To guide the future as he has the past.


Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;


All now mysterious shall be bright at last.


Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know


His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on


When we shall be forever with the Lord,


When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,


Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.


Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,


All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Isaiah: An Ensign to the Nation

Isaiah is the only book of scripture that the Lord commanded by name that we should read and search diligently.

An ensign is defined as a flag or a standard in which a group stands together in a unity of purpose or identity. It is a sign and an emblem. We learn in Isaiah about an ensign to the nations. Isaiah 5:26 says, “And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.” This ensign is a sign or a signal for people to prepare. This ensign is a sign for people to gather, to assemble themselves together, and to gather Israel. Isaiah 11:12, “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

An ensign that we have today would be Moroni on top of our LDS temples. We are told that when the Savior returns again that those trumpets will sound. Isaiah 18:1-7 is a great block of scripture that talks about this; I want to look specifically at verse 3. “All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.”

This is a hymn called “High on the Mountain Top” and it was inspired from Isaiah 2:2-3 and Isaiah 5:26. I love this song and would like for you to read the lyrics and really think of them and ponder these words. It is talking about an ensign to the nation.

1^st Verse

High on the mountain top

A banner is unfurled.

Ye nations, now look up;

It waves to all the world.

In Deseret's sweet, peaceful land,

On Zion's mount behold it stand!

2^nd Verse

For God remembers still

His promise made of old

That he on Zion's hill

Truth's standard would unfold!

Her light should there attract the gaze

Of all the world in latter days.

3^rd Verse

His house shall there be reared,

His glory to display,

And people shall be heard

In distant lands to say:

We'll now go up and serve the Lord,

Obey his truth, and learn his word.

4^th Verse

For there we shall be taught

The law that will go forth,

With truth and wisdom fraught,

To govern all the earth.

Forever there his ways we'll tread,

And save ourselves with all our dead.

I love this song and it means so much more to me now that I understand it and know the words. This song brings me great peace, comfort, joy, and love.

I would like to go back to Isaiah 5:26-30. We are told that we are to gather the Saviors sheep, we are to gather Israel; it is more important now than it ever has been to do temple work and missionary work. We need to bring His sheep back into the fold and we really have no excuse; we have technology and the means to get around faster than ever.

When I first read Isaiah 5:27-30 I was not all that sure what it meant. I went to our institute student manual for clarification. I really like how they explained these verses and am taking this directly from the manual.

“The gathering of Israel in haste and with means not known in Isaiah’s day is portrayed in the conclusion of this chapter. Elder LeGrand Richards provided this modern-day application of the prophet’s words: “Since there were neither trains nor airplanes in that day, Isaiah could hardly have mentioned them by name. However, he seems to have described them in unmistakable words. How better could ‘their horses’ hoofs be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind’ than in the modern train? How better could ‘their roaring . . . be like a lion’ than in the roar of the airplane? Trains and airplanes do not stop for night. Therefore, was not Isaiah justified in saying: ‘none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken’? With this manner of transportation the Lord can really ‘hiss unto them from the end of the earth,’ that ‘they shall come with speed swiftly.’”

We need to be gathering together, we need to be doing our temple work, we need to be active in missionary work because we do not know when the Savior will come again. We need to be prepared when the Savior decides to come. That ensign that I see everyday on the temple will soon blow its trumpet and let us know that our Savior is here and I hope that we are all ready.

I would like to bring up a couple other ensigns that are symbolic ensigns to all nations of the earth.

-The Book of Mormon

-The Church of Jesus Christ

Ecclesiastes: Seeing Life Clearly

Read the Bible Dictionary for “Ecclesiastes,” (pg. 659), and complete the following statements:

1.     The book of Ecclesiastes consists of reflections on some of the deepest problems of life, as they present themselves to the thoughtful observer.

2.     The author describes himself as “son of David, king in Jerusalem.”

3.     Ecclesiastes is written from the point of view of the Preacher.

4.     Ecclesiastes should not be construed as “theological pronouncements on the condition of the soul after death; rather, they are observations by the Preacher about how things appear to men on earth ‘under the sun’”.

Read Ecclesiastes 1–2 and list five ways the author sought happiness but couldn’t find it. After each item on your list, write the reference of the verse where you found it.

1. Seek out wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven (1:13)

2. Built houses (2:4)

3. Planted vineyards, gardens and orchards (2:4-5)

4. Got servants and maidens (2:7)

5. Gathered silver, gold, and peculiar treasure of kings (2:8)

 Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 and compare it with the principles that are taught in Mosiah 4:27; Doctrine and Covenants 10:4; 111:11; Luke 10:38–42. Write a paragraph describing why the timing and order of our activities are so important. Note some examples of how major events of life when done at the wrong time or out of order could seriously hurt an individual’s eternal progress. What do you think the Lord wants you to accomplish during this “time and season” of your life?

We learn in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that there is a time and place for everything. Mosiah 4:27 teach us that everything is done in wisdom and order. We cannot do things we are not ready for, or in other words, “a man should not run faster than he has strength.” This concept is also mentioned in D&C 10:4, “Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means…” D&C 111:11 teaches us that we will be given answers and we will gain knowledge when it is time, when we are ready.  Luke 10:38-42 tells us about the story of Jesus with Martha and Mary. This story teaches us that we need to see what is important, what is best (good, better, best), of all good choices. This is so important because if we understand these principles, if we understand that everything has a time and a place we are more likely to have faith in the Lord and trust the Lord.

            If major events of life are done at the wrong time or out of order it could seriously hurt an individual’s eternal progress. For example, having sex too early or even out of wedlock can have consequences if done at the wrong time in your life. In children who are too young and choose to have sex, their brains are not ready for the bodily changes, chemical and hormonal, as well as the psychological repercussions. It will change their brain when their brain is not developed fully yet.

During this season of my life I am to focus on school, making plans and preparing for my future. I am to make some very important decisions that will affect the rest of my life. I am also supposed to have fun, find who I am, find what is important to me and what I value and believe. I am to prepare myself for marriage and to have a family in the future. Right now, the season I am in, is a season of preparation and change, it is a season of growing up and developing who I am and characteristics that will help me throughout my life (school, work, and family).

 Read Ecclesiastes 12:7, 13–14 and answer the following questions:

What happens to us when we die? Our spirit will return unto God, who gave it 

What is “the whole duty of man”? To fear God, and keep his commandments

•       Why is this a good description of man’s purpose? This is a good description of man’s purpose because it is through keeping his commandments that we can become like him. It is through us keeping his commandments that his “work and glory” will be brought to pass. It is only through keeping his commandments and fearing God more than man that we can stay humble and put ourselves on the right track towards exaltation.