Light and Truth Forsake that Evil One
Again, before this last General Conference, I wrote down some issues/challenges about which I wanted direction. One of these was how to have the Spirit more readily in my life—mostly because I don’t have the Spirit as much as I’d like to.
There were some really good talks about this topic—especially in the Sunday morning session. And I felt like I got some good direction. But one statement that Pres. Nelson made triggered me: “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
As a perfectionist, I’ve spent much of my life listening to the whisperings of the shame gremlins, as Brené Brown calls them. Ideas such as: “You’re not good enough.” “You’ll never get it right.” “Who do you think you are?” “You can’t handle it.” “You don’t belong here.” “You’re not worthy.” “You are unlovable.” “You’ll never amount to anything.” “You don’t matter.”
Psychotherapists call these thoughts “scripts” or “tapes” that replay over and over in our heads, because they are ingrained in our core belief systems.
But these beliefs are not true. So they result in a “faulty core belief system.” And if they are not true, then they are lies. And where do lies originate? From the “father of lies”—Lucifer.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 93, we read:
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.
39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.
No wonder I don’t feel the Spirit as much: if I’m filling my mind with lies, playing those tapes over and over, then the Spirit will withdraw from me.
The more I fill my mind with hopeful, grateful, uplifting thoughts—light and truth, the more the Spirit can be with me. We are promised that if we “always remember Him” we may “always have His Spirit” to be with us.
To be continued . . . with Part 39
