18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the
greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to
suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup,
and shrink—
19
Nevertheless, glory be to
the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of
men. (D&C 19:18-19)
I think it is
notable that Christ gives glory to the Father in the midst of telling how hard
it was to bear the sins of the world. Look at that last dash in the text and
think about all the things He could have said following it.
He could have
forgotten to give that credit for His success and take all the credit for
Himself, but He didn’t. This shows how serious He is about doing the will of
the Father and giving the Father the glory. He was serious when He said, “Father,
thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”
It’s a nice
reminder that I need to give the Father credit for my successes. After all, He
gave me my life, He has supported me from day to day, lending my breath,
letting me move and try things. Even allowing me to make mistakes (though I
would prefer not to). All the intelligence I gain is from learning principles
that He knew first and has shared with humanity. Any good I do is because I
learned His commandments and felt inspired by the Spirit to do it. Any sins I’m
forgiven of through repentance are because He put the Plan of Salvation in
place so I could repent.
I think verse 6 is the verse for when we feel hopeless about the state of the world:
ReplyDelete6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.