Coming Unto Christ and Recognizing the Voice of the Adversary


  Lately i've been working a lot more diligently on developing spiritually. It's interesting to me how, as i've progressed in becoming closer to the spirit and coming unto Christ, there are things that I never clearly recognized in the past that now appear so black and white.

     Case in point: The scriptures frequently mention that there must be opposition in all things,   e.g.    2 Nephi 2;11  "For it must needs be that there is opposition in all things. If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad...."
(That's a verse found in the Book Of Mormon, for any non-LDS/Mormon person who might read this random blog)
So for us to be happy, there must be sadness and trials. For us to find joy, there must also be pain. That's just how it works. But we're not alone! Christ is there to guide us in our journey, if we'll just reach out to Him =)

     The reason I bring this up? Well i've been trying harder to make good decisions and keep negative, spiritually detrimental things out of my life. More recently i've been having a lot of success, which is wonderful, but i've noticed that the more I try to be good the more the adversary tries to stop me from doing good things and developing spiritually. I recognize this happening every day. I know for a fact that reading my scriptures will make me happy and uplift me spiritually and often emotionally. I consciously recognize that. But every time I think about reading my scriptures there is immediately a voice in my head that tells me "it'll take too much time; it'll be boring; it's too much work; I don't want to stop what i'm doing now; I can read them later; it's not that important." That part of my consciousness is really Satan trying to worm his way into my head and convince me not to do something that he knows will push him away. I regret to admit that most of the time I sit down to read my scriptures it is with a bit of reluctance, often accompanied by impatience, and I think to myself that i'll just read a chapter or two and get it out of the way so I can go back to doing other things. But without fail it's always a great experience for me in one way or another!

     And that's only one example: Every time I think of doing something positive and spiritually uplifting there's a counter-thought; every time i'm in a positive and uplifting environment there's a negative thought or idea or image that flashes into my head; every time I do something good it's immediately followed by a temptation; every time I start feeling better about myself and where i'm at in my personal progression, something happens to try and tear me down. The list just goes on and on!

     The only difference is that now that i'm trying to stay on the path, and i'm opening myself to the Spirit a lot more, I can actually recognize these things and take measures against them. It's not easy, and I often fail, but with Heavenly Father's help i'm doing better.