Finally Laying Down Our Weapons of Rebellion

The Anti-Nephi-Lehis in the Book of Mormon are an example of following God with full purpose of heart. They not only laid down their weapons of war, but as Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy pointed out in his talk to the Priesthood brethren in the October 2010 General Conference, they also laid down their weapons of rebellion. They stopped fighting against God and their conversion was real and complete. The scriptures point out that “they never did fall away.” By laying down their weapons of rebellion they qualified for the healing power of the Savior. He has promised us peace and forgiveness if we just come unto Him and repent. Elder Kearon contrasts this with the fact that God is grieved, the Spirit leaves, and we are left on our own when we attempt “to cover our sins or to gratify our pride or our vain ambitions.”

We must bring ourselves to the only one who can heal us, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We do this, as Elder Kearnon states, by “lay(ing) down our weapons of rebellion.” After reading this I prayed for God to tell me what my weapons are and how to lay them down. My mind was opened and the Spirit showed me what my most pressing weaknesses are. They are attitudes that many people probably deal with. None of them were a surprise for me, this was not the first time I was told to change these things. This first step is probably the hardest one to do. Some of our attitudes were sown in us as a child, the result of trauma of some kind, or rebellion against God's commandments. Recognizing the beliefs that we hold that are wrong takes much soul searching humility. Once we know what they are we can begin the arduous task of laying them down. I love the imagery that invokes. I can at any point on my journey set those beliefs down and walk away; probably walk faster with out all of that weight. Then the task becomes not going back and picking them up again.

In addition to the weapons of rebellion Elder Kearon admonishes us to “lay down our sin, vanity, and pride.” I see the weapons of rebellion as my attitude and thoughts, while sin, vanity, and pride as the actions that follow those beliefs. This is something that we, also, need to humbly ask God to tell us the specific things we need to change. These are just bullet points that if written down would define my weapons of rebellion. These are the sins we commit everyday, and especially those we seem to commit over and over. Taking time before you pray at night to analyze your behavior during the day for things you need to repent of will tell you what these are. Each action I change makes the journey lighter. The hard part here is keeping our focus because laying down a rebellious attitude is like setting down a large rock that I have been carrying, but each specific action is more like a pebble. Laying down one may not seem to make much of a difference, especially since everyday we will be picking up more pebbles because of the nature of mortality, but over time, after many pebbles have been dropped a difference will be felt. Eventually, the idea is the drop more than we pick up.

Another part of bring ourselves to Christ is according to Kearon, “giving up our desires to follow the world and to be respected and lauded by the world.” This fits right in with the vanity and pride mentioned earlier, but as those are actions this, again, is attitude. It is most likely a weapon of rebellion that required its own category because of its especially harmful effects. God wants and expects his covenant people to be different than the world. His standards are different for a reason and they will lead us to Eternal Life. His prophets teach just exactly what this standard is. By studying their words we will have a touchstone by which to judge all that we do . Following the prophets is vital to our salvation. There is too much of the beliefs of the world creeping into the attitudes of even the best of the saints. Keep in mind that the Lord as already warned that “even the elect will be deceived.” As the world gets more and more wicked the gulf between the righteous and the world will get bigger and bigger. We will find it more and more important to find ourselves standing on the right side of that gulf, avoiding that great and spacious building and the impossibility of straddling the gulf.

The great thing about the atonement is that all of this is possible. If we come to Him he will carry all of our burdens until we lay them down, in fact it will be easier to lay them down because we will have His help to make the change complete. The first step is to lay down our Weapons of Rebellion. To do this we need to change our attitudes about some things. We have to first humbly ask the Lord what weapons we are carrying and then take the time to root the evil out of our hearts. Then and only then, will we be able to lay down our sins, vanity, and pride. At the same time we will lose our desire for praise and acceptance in the world.