19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
It is so easy to be halfhearted, but this only produces half the growth, half the blessings, and just half a life, really, with more bud than blossom. (“Willing to Submit,” General Conference, April 1985)
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering (Alma 13:28).
Today, I will pay particular attention to any area where I may be resistant to submit my will to God’s. I will pray for the courage to obey my Father in Heaven in all things, so that I can “[put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the Atonement of Christ.”
God is love right? So how can love inflict when the term inflict has to do with punishment. Surely love knows how tone persuasive
That is an excellent question. I think it’s worthy of a blog post. Stay tuned over the next few days, and I’ll write a post about how to reconcile a loving God “inflicting” things on His children. Thanks for the question!