GOD GRANTS UNTO US THE DESIRES OF OUR HEARTS
[Talk by John E. Enslen at Wetumpka Ward sacrament meeting on July 10, 2011.]
Today I speak as a stake high councilor by way of assignment from our stake president, President C. Eric Boswell, whose love I convey by his request to each of you. My assigned topic deals with our “desires.”
I know that “desire” is a subject that is important to our understanding of the gospel and the living a righteous life of happiness. The word “desire” appears in holy writ 415 times, including 184 times in the Book of Mormon, more than in any other standard work.
My personal desire for the moment is that my words may be of value to us in our desire to become eternal beings of the celestial realm. In order to achieve our highest eternal destiny, we must first sincerely desire, and then work for, the qualities of a Christ-like character. Hopefully, we all desire such character traits so that we become fit and qualified for direct association with our Heavenly Father, his son Jesus Christ, and other heavenly persons.
We all have a set of desires. In fact, our nature is inseparable from our desires. Our desires are the pulses of our soul. We all rank our desires in our individual value systems according to their relative importance to us. The rank which we each assign to our desires is outwardly manifested by the manner in which we live our lives.
In the chain of motivations which dictate our conduct, desire is primal. It all starts with a desire. Our desires dictate our thoughts; our thoughts dictate our personal priorities; our personal priorities dictate our choices; our choices dictate our actions; our actions dictate our characters. By character, I mean who we are and what we have thus far become.
As mortals, we all have the basic desires of the natural man or natural woman that relate to our physical needs. These natural desires are the same desires possessed by the animal kingdom in general. But we are more than animals. We are the literal offspring of God, endowed with reason, the light of Christ, and moral agency. The great test of our mortal probation is to subjugate and restrict those natural desires to the boundaries that the Lord has set for such desires. The Lord declares that he will judge all men “according to the desires of their hearts.” (D & C 137:9) And he warns us that “the natural man is an enemy to God.” (Mosiah 3:19)
We have a basic desire for food. The Lord gives us the Word of Wisdom and instructs us to be “temperate in all things” (Alma 7:23; 38:10). He instructs us to be the masters of our desire for food by fasting at least once a month for 24 hours, abstaining completely from food or drink. How are we doing with this commandment which is essential to our becoming an eternal being fit for direct association with our Heavenly Father, his son Jesus Christ, and other heavenly beings?
We have a basic desire to engage in the activities relating to procreation. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have clearly pronounced the boundaries for such desires in the Proclamation On The Family, which reads in part:
“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and…the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity…will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”
We need to suppress and suppress quickly our carnal desires that do not fit within the boundaries the Lord has set. “Remember,” says Nephi, “to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.” (2 Ne. 9:39)
The Book of Mormon contains many important teachings about “desires.” With regard to the very first principle of the gospel, faith, Alma teaches that faith can begin with “no more than [a] desire to believe” if we “let this desire work in [us].” (Alma 32:27) Absent a desire to believe, we will not progress in gaining a testimony that Jesus is our atoning Savior; that Jesus has re-established His Church in our day as the sole repository of the ordinances of salvation and exaltation; and that Jesus reveals his current will to his chosen Prophet and Apostles.
We also learn from the Book of Mormon that the Lord honors our desires by honoring our agency or power to choose. He spoke to Enos in response to an all-day prayer: “I will grant unto thee according to thy desires….” (Enos 1:12) Enos had felt an unselfish desire for the welfare of others. (Enos 1:9) The Nephite Twelve “did pray for that which they most desired,” which was the Holy Ghost in their lives. (3 Ne. 19:19) Their desires were granted.
Aaron spoke to the Lamanite king: “If thou desirest [eternal life],…thou wilt repent of all thy sins,…then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.” (Alma 22:16) The king revealed his true desire when he said: “I will give away all my sins to know [God.]” (Alma 22: 18)
Elder Oaks has declared: “Readjusting our desires to give highest priority to the things of eternity is not easy. We are all tempted to desire…property, prominence,…and power. [W]e should not fix [these things] as our highest priorities. If our righteous desires are sufficiently intense, they will motivate us to cut…ourselves free from…sinful pressures and priorities that prevent our eternal progress.
[R]ighteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive, or temporary. They must be heartfelt, unwavering, and permanent.”
The words of Elder Oaks reminded me of the Book of Mormon scripture in Mosiah 5:2 relating to the mighty change from unrighteous desires to righteous desires: “We [had] no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”
Elder Neal A. Maxwell had this to say about this subject: “[W]hat we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity.”
In Alma 41:5, we learn that our lifetime of desires has a direct effect upon our resurrection: “[O]ne [is] raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other [is raised] to evil according to his desires of evil, for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.” Do we wish to associate in the hereafter with evil, or do we wish to associate in the hereafter with happiness, for “wickedness never was [and never will be] happiness.” (Alma 41:10)
The Lord knows the true desires of our hearts, and we cannot deceive him. He knows our righteous desires, and he knows our unrighteous desires. To the three Nephites, he said: “Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me.” (3 Ne. 28:6) “[Y]e shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, which the world shall stand.” (3 Ne. 28:9)
In Alma 29:5, we read where Alma concedes that he does not need to be an angel with a trump of God because God will allot to each man or woman that which is perfectly just and in accordance with the desires of that man or woman:
“Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.”
How much time do we waste desiring things which may be in opposition to God’s will? Physical beauty; athleticism; high position; unearned talents; wealth; revenge on an enemy; rock star fame; self-entertaining and self-pleasurable activities.
Before we passionately desire anything which another enjoys, we should investigate the state of happiness of the person who currently possesses it. We may be, in truth, desiring our own destruction.
We must vigilantly monitor our desires. We can waste much time on impossible desires—desires that are forever unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and thus destroying our contentment. The person who continually desires that which he or she does not have is a miserable person. When our cravings are replaced with a genuine desire to give thanks for that which we have, a peaceful contentment replaces misery.
We can redirect our desires in a positive manner to the simple, noble ventures that are within our reach, even immediately at hand on a continuous basis. That is the true means for expanding our capacities. There is more than a lifetime of successful work when we merely live in reality.
Of course, there is an unlimited supply of wholesome things that we should desire, and we have the ability from God to act on these desires. We can desire to stay morally clean. We can desire to serve a mission. We can desire to be married in the temple. We can desire to be righteous parents. We can desire to perform our life’s labors in a highly competent manner. We can desire to be good neighbors. We can desire to improve in our abilities to be kind, patient and forgiving. We can desire to do our part to preserve the liberty wherewith we have been made free.
What was the great and overriding desire of Christ? Was it not to do the will of the Father in all things? He is our perfect example in this, as in all other aspects of life.
Are we prepared to have our Eternal Judge attach such enormous significance to that which we truly desire? To actually judge us according to the desires of our hearts.
May we be so prepared I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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