Moroni's Invitation

I’m impressed with the level of devotion and urgency that Moroni invites us to have in our quest to come unto the Lord.  We can see this, for example, in his exhortations in Mormon 9.  He pleaded with us in these words: “Turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.”  We don’t just pray to the Lord but we cry unto Him; and we don’t just cry unto Him but “cry mightily” to Him in our search for His grace.  He similarly invited us to believe in Christ “nothing doubting” and emphasized a second time to “believe in [Christ’s] name, doubting nothing”—that’s a serious kind of faith.  Moroni challenged us to get rid of any casualness in our worship, imploring us, “Come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.”  We are to use “firmness unshaken” when we come to the Lord and should “strip [ourselves] of all uncleanness” and “do all things in worthiness” and “endure to the end” (Mormon 9:6, 21, 25, 27-29).  Though it would have been a lot better than the awful wickedness he saw from the Nephites in his day, Moroni wasn’t interested in a half-hearted approach to spirituality and righteous living.  We are to seek to come unto the Lord with all our heart.   

               Moroni continued to urge us to a higher, more complete level of righteousness and spirituality in his remaining words in the books of Ether and Moroni.  He gave us the words of the Lord inviting us to “exercise faith” in Christ “even as the brother of Jared did,” no small task for us given that the brother of Jared had so much faith that the veil was rent and he saw the Lord.  We are to similarly “rend that veil of unbelief” that we have and come to God with a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” (Ether 4:7,15).  Moroni also invited us to “humble [ourselves] before [Christ]” and “to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written” (Ether 12:27, 41).  We are to seek the Savior not casually but with all our hearts in our weakness and humility.  In the final chapter of Moroni’s words he again beckoned us to seek the Lord with intense feeling and sincerity.  He exhorted us to pray with “ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ.”  Again Moroni’s invitation was not just to pray but to go to the Lord with real purpose and desire.  His final invitation called for us again to come to Christ: “I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing…. Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness.”  Moroni invited us to give our whole souls to the Lord, to “love God with all your might, mind and strength” (Moroni 10:4, 30, 32).  Moroni’s invitations in the Book of Mormon call us to come to the Savior with full purpose of heart, to give soul-filled devotion and seeking after the Lord so that we can ultimately be “perfect in Christ” through the grace of God.