As Latter-day Saints are faithful, they can have certainty that things will work out well in the end, said Elder Gary B. Sabin, General Authority Seventy.
Speaking Saturday afternoon, Elder Sabin said Ezekiel contains a wonderful promise. “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him” (Ezekiel 18:21-22).
“What a fabulous promise, but it requires two ‘alls’ to receive the promise of the third,” said Elder Sabin. “Turn from all, keep all, then all is forgiven. This requires being ‘all in!’ ”
The Lord requires the heart and a willing mind, he said.
Elder Sabin recalled visiting with a young man who was cold all night during a Scout camp. The young man said he didn’t sleep in his sleeping bag because he didn’t want to roll it up in the morning.
“He froze for hours because he was trying to save five minutes of work,” Elder Sabin said. “We may think: How foolish! Who would ever do that? Well, we do it all the time in much more dangerous ways. We are, in effect, refusing to unroll our spiritual sleeping bags when we don’t take the time to sincerely pray, study, and earnestly live the gospel each day. … When we are complacent with our covenants, we are complicit with the consequences.”
Like a plastic, inflatable punching bag that pops up every time it is punched down, Church members should “stand up inside.”
“We stand up inside when we wait patiently upon the Lord to remove or give us strength to endure our thorns in the flesh,” he said. “Such thorns may be disease, disability, mental illness, death of a loved one, and so many other issues. … It is hard to measure the impact for good each individual can have by standing up inside.”
sarah@deseretnews.com @SJW_ChurchNews
