Full Purpose of Heart

President Hunter gave a devotional at BYU entitled The Dauntless Spirit of Resolution in which he talked about the resolutions that we set for ourselves in a new year.  He suggested that many of these resolutions are really “part of the process of repentance from past sins.”  For real changes to occur, he said, “there must be genuine effort, wholehearted effort,” and he suggested that this effort should entail what scriptures call “full purpose of heart.”  This phrase is a familiar one and I think it could be applied in various contexts: we should read our scriptures with full purpose of heart, we should serve the Lord with full purpose of heart, we should participate in the ordinances of the temple with full purpose of heart, etc.  For just about any worthy activity in the gospel we could say that it should be done with full purpose of heart.  I was surprised to see, though, that in the scriptures this phrase is used almost exclusively to help describe repentance.  As we think about the New Year’s resolutions that we may be make and particularly those that represent an act of repentance, the ones that we will end up actually keeping are those for which we give full purpose of heart.  We may even set forth specific goals and plans, but that will generally do little good to produce lasting change unless our heart is really in it.  True change in behavior comes as we give full purpose of heart to the Lord and to repentance.  

                The Book of Mormon contains numerous references to this phrase, all of which are centered around repentance.  Nephi invited us, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart,… repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism… behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 31:13).  Jacob similarly invited his people and us, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you” (Jacob 6:5).  After King Limhi’s people had spent many years in servitude to the Lamanites because of their wickedness, they repented and turned to the Lord, and King Limhi promised them, “But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage” (Mosiah 7:33).  It was King Limihi’s people’s coming to the Lord full purpose of heart that showed their repentance and brought their deliverance from the Lamanites.  When the Savior visited the Nephites, He used the phrase three times.  As He spoke from the heavens, He said, “O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart” (3 Nephi 10:6).  As He taught them what He had taught in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you” (3 Nephi 12:24).  In other words, before coming unto the Lord with full purpose of heart, we must first repent and mend our differences with our neighbors.  The last time He used the phrase was as He taught the disciples about those who have lost their way: “For ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them” (3 Nephi 18:32).  For those who have strayed from the path, if they want to come back they must do so through repentance and full purpose of heart. 

                The Prophet Joseph wrote a letter to someone who had left the Church and wanted to come back, and in it Joseph spoke of “the willingness of our heavenly Father to forgive sins, and restore to favor all those who are willing to humble themselves before Him, and confess their sins, and forsake them, and return to Him with full purpose of heart” (see here).  We likewise all of course go astray to one degree or another and have a need to “return to Him”, and the Savior’s invitation is that we don’t do it half-way or holding anything back or with reservations.  True repentance is only done with full purpose of heart.