The Lord Requireth the Heart

In the most recent general conference, Elder Ronald M. Barcellos spoke about the need for us to have our hearts right before the Lord. He quoted several scriptures that help us to assess the spiritual state of our heart. The first was this one: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). We can ask ourselves what we truly treasure most and that will tell us something about our hearts. Every Sunday afternoon our younger kids beg us to have our family scriptures study. In fact, sometimes one son in particular will even start hitting me and throwing a little fit that we are taking too long to do scriptures. It would look like quite the perplexing scene to an observer. But unfortunately it’s not because my kids love the scriptures that they insist that we read; rather, they know that we have told them once we have a little family scripture study they can watch their Sunday movie on BYUtv or LivingScriptures. That is their sole motivation. So, we might say that for them movie time is their treasure (and not time in the scriptures). That’s certainly not unexpected given their age, but hopefully at some point they will be able to treasure the word of God even more than the screen time they love so much. Surely we would do well to all ask ourselves what our greatest treasure really is.

                Elder Barcellos shared a few other passages of scripture about the heart. One was this one: “But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:29). So, we might ask ourselves if our heart is doubtful, especially when it comes to our confidence in the commandments of the Lord. Do we have a believing heart as we serve Him, or do we doubt the blessings that He has promised to the faithful? Elder Barcellos also shared this invitation from the Lord to Oliver Cowdery: “Treasure up these words in thy heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:20). We should treasure not just the scriptures but the words of the Lord to us through the Holy Ghost. If our hearts are right before Him, we will value that more than we esteem the opinions and advice of the world. Another scripture that Elder Barcellos shared are these words of Abinadi to the wicked priests of King Noah: “Ye have not applied your hearts to understanding; therefore, ye have not been wise” (Mosiah 12:27). So another spiritual test to assess our hearts might be to see if we really apply our hearts to understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Barcellos also warned us with these two passages: “The Savior taught that ‘out of the heart proceed evil thoughts’ and that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh’” (Matthew 12:34, 15:19). A good indication then of our hearts, according to the Savior, is to examine our thoughts and our words. When these come without conscious effort that is perhaps the best time to consider what they tell us about ourselves.

                Elder Barcellos encouraged us to take care of our spiritual hearts with these words: “I invite you to give your whole heart to the Savior today. Let each act of worship and service be sincere and intentional. Set aside the distractions of the world and strive to have meaningful time for the Lord every day of your lives. Repent and return to Him with all your heart, and He will forgive you and encircle you in the arms of His love. Seek not the things of this world, but choose to have your eye single to His glory and seek the things of a better one.”  That is how we can start to turn our hearts over to the Lord. He also said in this dispensation: “Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:34). He requires our heart, and we shouldn’t wait to long to give it to Him.