A meditation on the atonement of Christ

-->

Our Sunday school class last week spent some time thinking and talking about these verses:

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:11-12)

Over and over, my fellow Saints observed in different ways that it is neat to know that Christ can help us, not just with removing our sins, but also with our pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities.

The question is, how? How will Christ help us?  Well, we don’t exactly know how.  We know the mechanism is Christ’s grace and mercy, but we don’t know how and what Christ will do in any particular situation that we bring to Him.  We have to find out.   We have to trust that He has experienced it, and then call upon God and ask for help, then continue to cope in as best we can, while looking for His grace. 

At the risk of sharing too much, I’m going to give a recent example from my life.  About a week ago I had very bad cramps and bloating associated with my menstrual cycle.  It woke me up in the very early morning.  For the next hour I coped with the pain, trying to deal with it in different ways (including pain relievers and such).   My sincere question at that time was, “How can the atonement of Christ help me with this?” and I prayed for mercy and to be helped through it.

In some miraculous way I was helped through it.   At the time I couldn’t tell I was being helped, and afterward at first all I knew was that somehow I had been helped.  I had to think about it to be able to understand.  So here’s how I think I was helped. 1) I got ideas of how to move around such that a new position would bring about the next bit of progression through it.  2) Praying my way through it and pondering how the atonement might help me kept my mind off the pain and kept me from getting frustrated. 3) Even though the whole process lasted an hour, it didn’t feel so long because I was concentrated on praying and pondering. 4) My husband woke up near the end and gave me a blessing, so I had some company. 5) I was able to go back to sleep afterwards for three hours.

This was how the atonement helped me with this experience. If my circumstances were different, the divine help might have come in a slightly different way. 

Still, it taught me that using the atonement in our lives often requires experimenting and asking for help in a situation where we may wonder if the atonement can be used.  (Oh look! Experimenting is an opportunity for exploration and adventure of a spiritual nature!)  

We may wonder, how is the atonement of Christ going to help me with this?  But I learned that if we pray for mercy and strength, then re-engage in the problem, pondering and looking for the hand of the Lord, we will receive help.  And when we have been helped, we need to record what happened so that we can remember for later. These experiences tend to fade too quickly.  But if we can remember, they encourage us to keep experimenting with new ways to use the atonement.

Prayer can be a sacred grove experience

Two days ago, my husband and I were reading February’s home teaching message by President Eyring “Exhort Them to Pray” in preparation for giving it to a fellow who was in prison. Somehow I found myself somewhat puzzled by the concluding statement of the first five paragraphs.

When I was a little child, my parents taught me by example to pray. I began with a picture in my mind of Heavenly Father being far away. As I have matured, my experience with prayer has changed. The picture in my mind has become one of a Heavenly Father who is close by, who is bathed in a bright light, and who knows me perfectly.

That change came as I gained a sure testimony that Joseph Smith’s report of his experience in 1820 in Manchester, New York, is true:

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith—History 1:16-17).

Heavenly Father was in the grove on that beautiful spring day. He called Joseph by name. And He introduced the resurrected Savior of the world as His “Beloved Son.” Whenever and wherever you pray, your testimony of the reality of that glorious experience can bless you. (Henry B. Eyring, “Exhort Them to Pray”, Feb 2012 Ensign, 4, bold added)

That last sentence puzzled me—“Whenever and wherever you pray, your testimony of the reality of that glorious experience can bless you.” It seemed too general to me to be helpful, so I asked my husband what he thought about it. "How can our testimony of the First Vision bless us?" My husband came back with this great thought: whenever and wherever we are, we can pray as if we are Joseph Smith in that grove of trees and have our own little sacred grove experience as we think of Heavenly Father close by listening.

I think this is what President Eyring is getting at. Because of his testimony of the First Vision, he no longer prays imagining Heavenly Father far away. He prays imagining Heavenly Father present in a pillar of light exactly over his head with a brightness and glory that defy all description, ready to speak and answer.

Elder Erying writes, “He hears our prayers as He heard Joseph’s prayer—as clearly as if they were being offered in His presence.” If He hears our prayers that clearly, then to all intents and purposes, He is in our presence, and we will benefit more from remembering and imagining that when we pray.

This week I’m trying to remember that when I pray. So far it has made prayer a very powerful experience. Will you try this experiment with me this week?

Image: http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,104-1-3-4,00.html

Where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name

19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matt. 18:19-20)

We can see from the stories after Jesus’s resurrection that this promise was literally fulfilled. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were joined by the Savior. The apostles meeting in closed doors were joined by the Savior. How many other gatherings may not Jesus have visited without making himself visible?

I also think the great principle and promise of these verses is that the size of the gathering doesn’t matter as long as it is in His name. Thus, branches in the far reaches of the earth have the same spiritual privileges as stakes in an area well-populated with members.

I remember before a year of BYU started I and some other students were there early before most everyone else arrived. There were about twelve of us, and we were together in a dorm lobby. Someone got a notion that we could bear testimony to each other, so we did. We went around the group and shared our testimonies of the gospel and some of the miracles that brought us to that place in our lives. I remember that I felt a very special spirit there as we did that. I like to think that it was the Lord that was with us that day when we were so unified in gratitude and knowledge.

If you feel it is appropriate, will you share any experiences you had when you felt the Lord was with you when you gathered in His name?