The Secret to Receiving Grace

Welcome to The Laws of Peace, where you will learn how to understand and apply God's laws in simple ways so that you can take small steps to create big changes and miracles and become the person you are always meant to be.

The answers are in the scriptures.

Let me show you how to find them.

Today's episode is called The Secret to Receiving Grace.

This month, we are discussing the law of the divine economy, which basically states that we do our part, we prepare to receive and the Lord gives us grace to do what would be impossible otherwise.

We prepare to receive grace.

And there are three principles that are a part of this law.

The first one we discussed last week, which is faith and taking action.

Today, we'll discuss grace.

And next week, we will discuss the third principle.

So let's dive right in.

We're going to start with the parable of the talents.

This is a famous parable.

Everybody knows it.

The servants were given different amounts of talents, and most of them doubled them, but one buried his in the dirt.

And Brad Wilcox, in his book, Changed Through His Grace had a really beautiful take on this.

And he started by telling us about when he has a new grandbaby.

Every time he has a new grandbaby, he rushes to the hospital with a brand new book, and he reads the new grandbaby a story, because he wants them to learn to love books as much as he does.

He quotes, he says, The parable of the talents can have many interpretations.

It can also be viewed as a parable about receiving grace.

Now, when I read Matthew 25, I no longer think of just money or abilities.

I think of books.

And unto one, he gave five books, to another two books, and to another one book.

The first two read their books, and the Lord said, Well done.

You have read a few books.

I now give you more.

Enter into my library.

The third servant didn't care about his book, so the Lord ended up taking it away.

Not because he was being mean or punishing the servant.

He took the book away because the servant had already tossed it aside.

What good is a book to one who refuses to read?

Even if the Lord had welcomed the third servant into his library, the servant would not have valued anything there.

Until he changed his attitude, additional books would have been more burden than blessing.

So it is with receiving grace.

For unto him that receiveth, it shall be given more abundantly even power.

That's from D&C 71 verse 6.

And then, but from them that shall say we have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

Second Nephi 28 30.

Elder Wilcox continues, It appears that God gives his children power similarly to how I give my grandchildren books.

Those who use what they receive are granted more.

Isn't that beautiful?

I just love that.

So basically what we're learning about is stewardship.

We need to take care of the things we have before we receive more.

We need the definition of stewardship is the conducting, the supervising, or managing of something, especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

That could look like so many things, and we'll discuss it more next week, but it could be taking care of the car you already have if you want more, or having a clean and up-cut house so that the Lord can bless you with even more.

It's taking care of what we have is a part of receiving grace.

Ultimately, we can't change or fix our lives by ourselves.

Only God can do that.

When we do our small part, we receive the, we prepare to receive the answers, and to take care of what we have, the Lord steps in and does the rest.

We, it's like we plant carrots.

We water and weed them, and he provides the harvest.

But more than that, he blesses us with power.

That's the law.

We do our part, and God blesses us with more, more power, more money, better relationships, and more peace.

Let's go to another scripture story and read a little bit more about the doing of our part to receive.

This is the story of raising Lazarus from the dead.

Now remember, he's been gone for four days, and the people there believe that after three days, the spirit leaves the body.

And we're going to start the story in John 11, starting in verse 38.

This is where Jesus is standing in front of the tomb, and the stone is in front of the tomb.

And he said to Mary, in verse 39, Take ye there, he said, generally, I guess, Take ye therefore away the stone.

And Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he's been dead for four days.

Remember, they think that he's long gone because it's been four days.

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead were laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou has heard me.

I love that gratitude is a part of the story.

And next, and when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin, and Jesus said unto them, lose him and let him go.

There is a beautiful commentary by Tad Callister in his book, The Infinite Atonement.

This is what he said about this.

He said, one might ask, well, why didn't Jesus remove the stone with the show of power?

Why didn't Jesus unwrap the revived corpse?

His response was a demonstration of the divine law of economy, namely that we must do all we can.

And when we have reached our limits, when we have asserted all our mental, moral, and spiritual energies, then the powers of heaven will intervene.

Mad could remove the stone and unwrap the corpse, so he must do it.

But only the power of God could call the dead to life.

There are certain occasions when our best efforts, as extraordinary as they may be, are simply inadequate.

It is not simply a function of time and effort, meaning if we had enough time and we were willing to put forth the effort, we would eventually become gods.

It's more than that.

Tad Kallister continues.

It's also a matter of capacity.

Can we, in and of ourselves, unaided by any artificial means, fly through the air?

We may have the compelling urge to do so.

We may jump off the cliff and attempt to enter the enterprise with an unrelenting determination.

We may have biceps of extraordinary proportion.

We may rotate our arms with astounding speed.

We may even have a Ph.D.

in aerodynamics, but we will fall just the same.

If we desire to travel as God does, some external power must transform our physical body to one of celestial material.

That's from Todd Callister.

Beautiful commentary, right?

We can't earn grace.

We can't make it happen.

We need grace to improve our thoughts and our circumstances.

We need grace to have the courage to declutter our houses.

We need grace to grow our capacity and power.

Grace grows our capacity and our power, and it helps us to become abundant people.

Like I said, we don't earn grace.

We do our part to receive it.

Jesus Christ is the source of all power and grace, and it is he that enables us to make lasting change, not only to ourselves, but to our circumstances.

We talked about that last week.

But don't get caught in the lie that your part is never enough.

That will stop you in your tracks.

That's what Satan wants you to believe.

Elder Brucey Hafen in his book, The Broken Heart, said this.

He said, the Savior's gift of grace to us is not necessarily limited in time to after all we can do.

We may receive his grace before, during, and after the time when we expend our own best efforts.

There's a lot of hope in that quote.

And then, of course, Elder Uchtdorf teaches us so beautifully about grace in his talk, The Gift of Grace.

He starts out by talking about Nephi.

He said, the prophet Nephi made an important contribution to our understanding of God's grace when he declared, We labor diligently to persuade our children and also our brethren to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God, for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do.

This is a famous scripture that we usually use to beat ourselves to a pulp.

I'm not doing enough.

After all I could do, I could always do more.

Let's talk about what that really means.

Let's go back to what Elder Uchtdorf said.

He said, however, I wonder if sometimes we misinterpret the phrase after all we can do.

We must understand that after does not equal because.

We are not saved because of all that we can do.

Have any of us done all that we can do?

Does God wait until we've expended every effort before he will intervene in our lives with his saving grace?

Many people feel discouraged because they constantly fall short.

They know firsthand that the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

They raise their voices with Nephi, proclaiming, My soul grieveth because of my iniquities.

I am certain that Nephi knew that the Savior's grace allows and enables us to overcome sin.

This is why Nephi labored so diligently to persuade his children and brother and to believe in Christ and be reconciled to God.

After all that we can do, that is our task in mortality.

We must do our part to receive.

One more quote from Todd Callister.

He said he uses this beautiful metaphor because we sometimes get all goofed up in what's our part and what's God's part, and how much do I have to do before I can earn grace?

When we're not earning grace at all, we're preparing to receive.

What is it that you need to do to prepare to receive grace?

This is what Todd Callister said.

He said when a lifeguard stretches out a pole to the drowning swimmer, the swimmer must reach out and hold on if he desires to be rescued.

Both the lifeguard and the swimmer must fully participate if the swimmer's life is to be saved.

Likewise, works and grace are not opposing doctrines as so often portrayed.

To the contrary, they're indispensable partners in the process of exaltation.

I hope from all of this, the way you're getting is that there is effort required.

There is faith required, and there are so many different things that we can do to prepare to receive grace.

We prepare by choosing to have faith.

We prepare by taking action based on that faith.

We prepare by believing in Jesus Christ and being open with soft hearts to receive his word.

We learn about that in a beautiful way in the parable of the sower of the seeds.

What kind of soil is God's word landing on?

Are you open to receive it so that the seed can grow?

Or are you hard-hearted and stubborn?

What effort are you putting into?

President Nelson says that the Lord loves effort.

What effort is the Lord inviting you into so that you can have a closer relationship with him?

Every relationship requires effort on our part, and that includes our relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.

And as we put forth that effort, we have a more powerful receiving of the Spirit, of receiving grace, of receiving that power.

I'd like to share a quick story with you.

Years ago, my anxiety was so bad that I could barely manage life, and I was in Young Women's.

I was teaching the youth in our church, and I had prepared my lesson and was ready to come and teach.

But the day of the lesson, just in moments before it was my turn to stand up and teach, I was overcome with a panic attack, and I couldn't stop crying.

For me, a panic attack usually looks like massive amounts of sobbing and crying and tears.

And usually when I have a panic attack, I haven't had one for a long time, it's very disconcerting for the people around me.

It's very uncomfortable because they see this person sobbing, and they don't know what to do, and it's very awkward, and they don't know how to help, and it's just awkward for everybody.

But I really wanted to teach this lesson, and I knew that the Lord would help me.

And so I stood up in front of the group, and I said, I need you just to bear with me.

I'm having some anxiety, but I want to teach this lesson.

And as I stepped forward and started teaching the lesson, I was filled with the Spirit, and I was able to teach the lesson, and it was a good lesson.

The Lord sustains us.

We need to take that first step though, just like the children of Israel as they stepped into the River Jordan, like we talked about last week.

As we take those steps forward, as we prepare, just like I prepared my lesson, even though I was scared, as we open our hearts to receive Jesus Christ, as we open our hearts to receive the Word, and as we put forth that effort, just like the swimmer who has to grab a hold of the pole.

As we do our part, the Lord steps in in powerful ways to help enable us to overcome and become and do things that would be impossible by ourselves.

That is the law of the divine economy.

We do our part, and the Lord gives us so much more.

Thank you so much for being here.

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