“Lord, Is it I?”- Humility in Covenant Keeping

The Deoalogue

As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are two question we should be asking on a regular basis:  The first is “Lord, is it I?” and second is “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?”

It seems to me that there is no way that we will be able to fully keep our covenants with the Lord without those two questions.  The first addresses our pride.  It is natural to think that we are not to blame, that we are not responsible.  Yet in relationship to our covenants (baptism, sacrament, temple) we must ask ourselves, “Are we covenant breakers?” And if so how might that be the case?   We must lay aside our pride and our vain ambitions and evaluate how we are keeping our covenants.   Perhaps we are not overt breakers but are we covenant neglectors?  Our covenants are supposed to be a ladder that extends into heaven.  Our covenants provide the power we need to ascend.   We can enter into covenants but if we fail to use them to progress they become null and void, anemic and without power.   

Our covenant keeping is to be between ourselves and the Lord.  We can go to him in prayer and ask what we need to do to keep our covenants.  We can ask, “What wilt thou have me do?”  How do we “always remember” the Lord.  How do we sacrifice?   What do we need to consecrate to the Lord?  There are many aspects to our covenants.  The spirit will teach each of us something different in any given moment.  This cannot be a group effort.  It is an individual journey. 

The seriousness of keeping our covenants is very significant to ourselves individually and also to the body of Saints as a whole.   The scriptures teach us and witness to us by example the outcome of keeping or not keeping covenants.  When we make covenants we have moved out of neutral territory as Joseph Smith said, and have committed ourselves in the Lord’s Kingdom.   We are promised great blessings that without our covenants we could not otherwise have received.  We are promised eternal family, posterity, an inheritance (both temporal and eternal) and exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom. Our covenants are the path to not just goodness but to holiness and sanctification.

Covenants also come with penalties that are the opposite of the blessing we could have gained. This is somewhat of an unpleasant idea and is particular foreign in our permissive culture and society.  We don’t like to consider the consequences of our sins but one of the purposes of this life is to in fact learn to understand that there are irrevocable consequences to sin.  Thanks be to God that we have a Savior, but our Savior’s atonement is accessed under certain conditions and part of those conditions include covenant making and covenant keeping if we are to go beyond salvation and on into exaltation.  

An example of a covenant penalty coming upon the Lord’s people is the final destruction of the Nephite society in the Book of Mormon.  While the Lamanites who were not under the covenant suffered from the natural causes of mortal life and strife, they were not destroyed.  The Nephites who had been given the covenants of the Lord even unto having his presence and living in a Zion society were eventually destroyed for the breaking (and lack of repenting) of those covenants.

“Curse” is a word we like to ignore, hide from and pretend that it has nothing to do with us.   We recoil from the idea.  It repels us as it should.  But we must accept the reality that the scriptures are replete with warnings to the Lord’s covenant people.  The idea of covenant breaking bringing upon ourselves curses is in Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, 2 Nephi, D&C 104 and Moses 5.  President Benson talked to the entire church about the condemnation that the Lord put upon the Saints because they took the Book of Mormon lightly.

54 And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—
55 Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.
56 And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.
57 And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written—
58 That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father's kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion.
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 84:54 - 58)

There are many things withheld from us because we haven’t done what we need to do with what we have been given.  Perhaps part of lifting that condemnation is for us to examine ourselves and our covenant keeping at the level we are currently at.  Again let us ask ourselves as we consider this, “Lord, is it I?”  It is so easy to think that so and so is in trouble and ignore how we ourselves might be in trouble.  We are fooling ourselves if we look past ourselves. 

The Lord is reaching out to us continually, offering repentance to us so that curses (or damnation or lack of progression) can be lifted off of us.  A curse is not necessarily an overt punishment.  It can be a barrier that stops our spiritual progression.  It can be as simple as not feeling the direction of the spirit like we used to, not receiving the revelation needed to navigate our situation.  Perhaps we have residual effects from the sins of others that are impeding us.  We have the iniquities of the fathers that entail upon their children down through the generations.   These can all be overcome by our covenant keeping.  Our covenants have been given to us as a path of deliverance through our Savior Jesus Christ.  We are taught in the temple about the redemption of Adam and Eve from the curse of the fall.  They made covenants with the Lord in order to be brought back into His presence and partake of eternal life and exaltation.  What a glorious knowledge!  What good news!!

Perhaps it is a trick of the adversary to make looking at our failure, our sins, our need for repentance so unpleasant that we never get to it.  In reality it is full of joy, relief, happiness and excitement.  If we cast off the blinders of the adversary we will run to the Lord to find out how we can have our condemnation lifted.  I have always loved how excited Adam and Eve are to hear Heavenly Father’s voice and recognize that he is coming to visit them after they have partaken of the forbidden fruit.  It is Satan who brings upon them fear and tells them to hide from the Lord.  The Lord then matter of factually outlines the consequences (or curses) that have come upon them because of partaking of the forbidden fruit and then begins the covenant process of redeeming them.  If Adam and Eve had not been able to stand before God and say “Yes, I did it!” they would have not been in position to start on the path of redemption.

May we all be willing to follow the example laid before us by our first parents and stand up and confess our sins and ask him how we might be redeemed.  May we do that over and over.  May we do so daily in our prayers.  May we ask “Lord is it I?” and “Lord, what wilt thou have me do?”