Prepare to Meet Thy God

As he warned the people of the northern kingdom, Amos gave them these words from the Lord: “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name” (Amos 4:11-13). The Lord had caused great difficulties to come upon them from famine to foreign invaders, trying to encourage them to repent, and yet they still did not return unto Him. And so they would be taken captive and destroyed, and each of them would be called upon to meet their God. They had failed to understand that the greatest purpose of their life was to turn to the Lord and prepare to meet Him; instead they had focused on their riches, oppressed the poor, broken the commandments, and forgotten the Lord. The invitation of Amos to them is just as relevant to us today: “Prepare to meet thy God.”

            President Nelson spoke to the young adults of the church earlier this year and made this statement: “My purpose tonight is to make sure that your eyes are wide open to the truth that this life really is the time when you get to decide what kind of life you want to live forever. Now is your time ‘to prepare to meet God.’” These words which are similar to the message of Amos are based on the teachings of Alma in the Book of Mormon. Alma was one who must have understood very well the purpose of life because he had wasted much of his in sin and riotous living. But after he came to the Lord and repented, he knew what really mattered and focused all his energy on the work of the Lord. He taught the people of Ammonihah: “Nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead” (Alma 12:24). The purpose of this life is to enable us to repent and prepare to meet our God. Amulek learned from Alma and taught something similar to the Zoramites: “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed” (Alma 34:32-33). Our most important work on earth is to prepare to meet God, and we do that by repenting and not procrastinating. We must “improve our time” here and strive each day to be better and develop more of the attributes of God so that when we see Him “we shall be like him” (Moroni 7:48). 

               Alma gave several questions to the Nephites at Zarahemla to help us understand how to do this: “Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins? Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God” (Alma 5:27-28). Through humility and repentance, stripping ourselves of our pride and being cleansed through the blood of Christ, we can prepare each day to meet Him. It is a meeting that must surely come as Mormon boldly declared: “I write unto you, that ye may know that ye must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yea, every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam; and ye must stand to be judged of your works, whether they be good or evil” (Mormon 3:20). The message of Amos, Alma, Mormon, and President Nelson is that now is the time to repent and prepare to meet our God.