Mormon Direction

Many have said that God loves them no matter what, or God accepts them for what and who they are. Do these people who believe this know exactly what they are saying and why?

It is true that God loves us but the key to understand what he loves and what he does not resides in what he created and made. When people look if God loves them, they see it from their personal perspective and not from the eternal one God has. A person does not have to be like a god to have some understanding of what God loves from his eternal perspective.

When God the Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to give us the opportunity to salvation into his kingdom where he resides, that says God the Father is asking us to return to his kingdom. His kingdom is a place of perfection not imperfection, of incorruption not corruption. We can reside with him, but not as we are now, living in corruption, so God the Father set conditions by which we must abide in order we can reside with him.

The scriptures clearly set these conditions out. Faith and obedience are the two main ones. To have faith in God the Father is in spirit and in truth and to obey all his commandments, which his Son Jesus Christ has given. Without proper faith and obedience, no matter how much we believe God loves us, we cannot enter into his kingdom.

Doing our best for God becomes important and establishes the ground by which we stand and move toward God. Without this, how can we abide in God’s will?

continue reading…

I spoke of self-esteem and a relation with God ( see “Self-Esteem and Faith” ). Now I wish to speak of what self-esteem means to me and what works.

The world provides a lot of advice about boosting self-esteem, but the main problem with worldly advice that it does not work well for the faithful, those who abide with God and want to keep themselves spiritually healthy. When I spoke of self-esteem and a relationship with God, I spoke against worldly opinions, ideas and thoughts because they work contrary to gospel principles and faith. I understood what self-esteem meant in regards to faith and from that I understood what it meant to myself in life, both spiritually and temporally

Not long ago, I thought I had good self-esteem, until the Lord led me to see I did not. When I spoke of self-esteem to another, I was also seeing myself and when the Lord turned the light bulb on, I realized that my self-esteem was not what it should have been. In this I realized that God does care about self-esteem and he does teach that low or lower self-esteem is bad for faith because it hampers the person from actually giving their best to God. Sure, God loves us either way, but God loves to see that we perceive ourselves rightly and his love cannot work for us when we allow ourselves or give excuse to lower our self-esteem. Simply, when we reject ourselves, we reject God also because we are in his image and the rejection is of his own image. It is the same as a loving parent feeling rejected when their son or daughter, who are born in their image, rejects themselves. Thus, God loves us to learn to love ourselves in the right way.

What then can we do to raise self-esteem and include our faith in it?

continue reading…

Everyone deals with shortcomings about their self-esteem or self-image. How they perform at work, at home, in relationships, in their personal or public performances, whether they feel worthy or unworthy. At one time or another, if not repeatedly, everyone has some issue with their self-esteem, but in this struggle, has there been any concern about self-esteem versus faith?

When it comes to faith, it is a matter where each person must take account of themselves and evaluate the nature and degree of their self-esteem and then see how this affects their faith.

Faith is the expression and act of love, devotion and obedience to God and for him. It is the trust in his will and trust that he will help and bless. Faith is also the expression of oneself to God, the who and what we are. In this expression of oneself comes the value of oneself. This personal value is the gift that we, as sons and daughters of God, give to God.

IN the scriptures God speaks about the value of how we give a gift where he said, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (1 Cor 2.9:7). Gods speaks of the value of the heart and mind in things that we give to him and to others. Giving our faith grudgingly, is not faith at all. To exercise the commandments of God because you believe you have to, what value is this to God and his kingdom?

continue reading…