What gospel principles will you practice today? Have you done your spiritual exercises?
This whole process of "becoming a saint" takes daily practice and consistent exercise. To get better at anything you simply have to practice. To be like Jesus, we have to try doing the sorts of things he did when He was on earth.
Mosiah 3:19
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
The prophet Heber J. Grant was known for using this quote all the time.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "That which we persist in doing becomes easy to do; not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our power to do has increased."
I am intrigued by scriptures that tell us to practice holiness or exercise faith. These remind me of this scripture:
John 7:17
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
We learn and become better at something by doing it. If we want to be virtuous, holy, or have faith in Christ, we need to practice it.
Here are some scriptures where we are told to practice something:
Doctrine and Covenants 38:24
24 And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practise virtue and holiness before me.
Doctrine and Covenants 46:33
33 And ye must practise virtue and holiness before me continually.
And then there is exercise.....
1 Nephi 7:12
12 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.
Doctrine and Covenants 44:2
2 And it shall come to pass, that inasmuch as they are faithful, and exercise faith in me, I will pour out my Spirit upon them in the day that they assemble themselves together.
Doctrine and Covenants 104:80
80 And inasmuch as you are diligent and humble, and exercise the prayer of faith, behold, I will soften the hearts of those to whom you are in debt, until I shall send means unto you for your deliverance.
Alma 34:17
17 Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you.
Alma 32:27
27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
So what gospel principles have you practiced or exercised today?
