Ether 2:15 - Part 2

And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him. And the Lord said unto him: I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man; wherefore, if ye will sin until ye are fully ripe ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And these are my thoughts upon the land which I shall give you for your inheritance; for it shall be a land choice above all other lands.

God is merciful and forgives sins. Jesus commanded his disciples to forgive seventy times seven, and surely the Father keeps his own commandments, so he is pretty patient with sinners. Nevertheless, he apparently has a limit to his patience. Though he is infinite, he is not infinitely patient. We can reach a point in our willful, rebellious, intentional sinning that the Lord stops inviting us and enticing us to turn to him. He does not close the door on our possible repentance, but it will be much more difficult for us to recognize and turn from our sins when his Spirit is withdrawn from us. Far better is it for us to repent daily, even though we remain weak, than to think we can postpone our repentance to the last minute. If we wait for the last minute, we will likely miss that minute and slip past the grasp of mercy completely.

3 Nephi 17:8

For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you.

Apparently faith is measurable. God measures our faith by our faithfulness, humility, and patience. For our faith to have power, we must be "all in". He expects is to do all we can for ourselves first and then turn to him to complete what we cannot do on our own, and then wait for him to work. It is counter to faith to rush to the Lord first while keeping a back-up plan in our hip pocket in case God does not come through to our liking.

Alma 34:41

But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions.

Hope is the antidote of despair. Afflictions may seem to fill our lives and consume our days and threaten to overwhelm us. But they are never permanent. God is always at the end of the tunnel. What afflictions teach us is patience. We will need patience in the celestial kingdom because we will have imperfect children to deal with for a very long time. This life is where we begin to learn the lessons of patience. The reward of patience is hope.

Alma 32:41

But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.

Faith, diligence and patience are key concepts in the conversion process. If we do not exercise these traits, we will find ourselves frustrated or deceived. Note that these three words are repeated three times in three verses in this chapter. That is the scriptural equivalent of bold, italics, underlines and exclamation points.

Alma 29:8

For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.

We have to be patient with the Lord and trust that he knows what he is doing. His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither is his timing our timing. We seem to always want him to hurry up, but he sees the big picture and knows when the time is right for things to happen. Whether in the affairs of nations or in our individual lives, God's wisdom is always most desirable because he always has our best interests at heart. When we learn patience, we are humble.

Mosiah 29:20

But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him.

The result of faith is mercy. The ultimate end of mercy is deliverance, although the immediate result might be more trials. We must always remember in whom we trust and add patience to that trust. Without patience, trust is just a wish.

Mosiah 23:21

Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

Why do we have trials, challenges, predicaments, afflictions, problems, heartaches, pain, sorrow, disappointments, disasters, calamities, and troubles? Because we have to learn patience and faith. Without resistance, we do not develop. Without mountains we do not rise. Without pressure we do not expand. Without the furnace of affliction, we are not purified. Does God like to see us suffer? No, but he hates even more to see us whither, atrophy, and waste our probation. He wants us to come home fit for his kingdom.

Mosiah 21:15

And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage.

If we have separated ourselves from God, it may take effort on our part to humble ourselves enough to reestablish the lost connection. It may seem like God is ignoring us, but he never ignores us. He hears every prayer, but he may not answer instantly so that we have time to really attune ourselves to his will, so we are ready to accept his answer when it comes.