Growth Through Christ

 Hello Friends!

I am here again to share with you what I have learned this week from my New Testament class.

I am given several chapters of the four gospels to read and study. If you are familiar with the four gospels you know that they repeat a lot of the same scenarios but from different apostles perspectives and written to different audiences. At different times in my life, one gospels perspective has spoken to me more than others.

In Matthew 19:16-22 and Mark 10:17-2 tells us about the young rich man who came running to ask how to have eternal life. I like the visual of him running because it seems to me that he really wants to know the answer. Christ then tells him the commandments which this young man already does. He sounds like a good man, right?

Is good, good enough?

So the young man tells Christ that he has lived the commandments his entire life and in Matthew19:20 he uses the phrasing, “...what lack I yet?” 

I like this phrasing because it is such a good question to ask yourself every day, what lack I yet? 

Jesus’ response in Matthew “...If thou wilt be perfect,” reminds me of his teaching in the sermon on the mount to be perfect meaning to strive every day to become something better than today to work towards being complete.

So Christ tells the young man to go and sell everything he has and “...come and follow me.”

The young man is sad and went away. You may have the impression that he doesn’t do what Jesus asked of him but I like to imagine that he is like me and is sometimes just slow to understand or maybe wasn’t really ready yet but eventually came around. It is implied in both Matthew and Mark that his inability to give up his riches was his stumbling block.

All growth requires sacrifice. 

So we have to ask ourselves what is my stumbling block? Is it pride, faithlessness, laziness, etc? Then we must replace that stumbling block with a building block or in other words a Christlike attribute. 

In our most recent General Conference Elder Scott D. Whiting spoke of completing a Christlike attribute activity that can be found in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. This is something I am doing along with studying the four gospels in my New Testament class.

My focus has been on faith but I am finding that as I work on my faith that I am repenting more and noticing where my pride has halted my progress towards becoming like Christ. 

President Nelson explained it perfectly in his 2019 April talk We Can Do Better and Be Better

“When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy--the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ! 

Friends I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can find answers to the question “What lack I yet?” and become something more.

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen