Week 27

Well, I must admit it has been a long time since teaching this lesson and I had to go back and review what inspired this handout. This lesson happened to be about Zion's camp and the men who traveled over a 1000 miles to help save the saints in Independance from the mobs who wanted to kill them. When these men arrived they were told by the Lord they would not be fighting that they were going to return. Now i could go into the entire story but you can go and read the history for yourselves I am going to tell you what I got from this. Here you have these men who were ready to fight, to avenge their brothers and sisters in the gospel. the had traveled a long way and had plenty of time to become enraged and ready to fight their enemies, and of course they had every reason to feel the way they did. However, when they were told they would not fight and they needed to turn around and go home, a lot of them were angry--they wanted to fight. I can feel thier anguish. So often, i want to fight, i have had a lot of time to stew in my thoughts, to convince myself I am justified, I need to take out my frustrations and why not on my enemy, who has wronged me. (Sometimes our enemies can be our friends and family too) But then when we get there we are told, by the spirit, to let it go. That is not easy to do. In fact I believe it to be one of my greatest weaknesses. But the true test is to ask ourselves why? when we have gone through so much and have every reason to fight..why would the Lord bring us on this journey just to have us turn around or "let it go"! Well in this case, it was not about vengeance, it was about the journey. What did you learn a long the way? You were willing to stand up for the truth...they were willing to give their lives for their brothers and sisters. now of course my analogy is not nearly as pressing as people who are being killed and thrown from their homes. (an argument about who is right and who is wrong is not a justified reason for vengeance it is just pride) However we can learn the same things. We must trust in the Lord...we must realize He is the one who guides our lives. We must turn to Him and allow Him to save us and to save our enemies. We must ask ourselves what have i learned from this journey...this situation...the moment. Is the Lord a constant in our lives? Do we fear him or fear the world. I must say that the world wins a lot of battles in my life but I am consistantly reminded that the outcome is much more peaceful when the Lord wins my battles. I am striving to always ask what am i learning. Where am i going? I am not perfect but i long to be perfected in Him.