In All Lowliness of Heart

When the angel spoke to King Benjamin, he taught that the “natural man is an enemy to God” and that we must “yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit” and become a saint through the atonement of Christ and become as a child in order to overcome the natural man. He then listed six attributes of children that we should seek to emulate: “submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him” (Mosiah 3:19). As I pondered these today, I was struck by the fact that five of them relate to our humility before God. To be submissive, to be meek, to be humble, and to be willing to submit before God (really a repetition of submissive) all say approximately the same thing about the humility we have in our relationship with God. Patience also is a closely related virtue that indicates our willingness to trust God and His timing despite our own desires; as the Preach My Gospel manual puts it, “Patience is the capacity to trust God as you face delay, opposition, or suffering. Through your faith, you trust God’s timing for His promised blessings to be fulfilled.” And so, it is clear that a major part of overcoming our tendencies of the natural man is to fully humble ourselves before God, submitting ourselves to Him and trusting His timing and help in our lives. This reminds me of what the Savior said to the apostles in this dispensation about how they were to preach the gospel: “Let the residue continue to preach from that hour, and if they will do this in all lowliness of heart, in meekness and humility, and long-suffering, I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that I will provide for their families; and an effectual door shall be opened for them, from henceforth” (Doctrine and Covenants 118:3). Again, the Lord repeated the idea of humility with multiple words: lowliness of heart, meekness, humility, and long-suffering are all essentially the same idea, and it was as if the Lord said, “Let me repeat this idea with as many synonyms as possible so that you understand the pivotal role of humility in doing this work.” And so, humility is not one Christlike attribute among many that we might spend a little time trying to develop—it should be at the foundation of our spiritual lives and it is crucial to our becoming like the Savior.

                Both Moroni and Mormon also both taught about the foundational nature of humility when they taught about the greatest of all Christlike attributes, charity. Mormon said “And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity” (Moroni 7:43-44). We cannot come before God and be acceptable to Him if we do not develop humility. Moroni gave us these powerful words of the Savior highlighting the same principle before he went on to teach about charity: “My grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:26-27). To come unto Him, we must recognize our weakness and be humble, just as Moroni humbled himself before the Savior as he felt his own weakness in performing the task the Lord had given him. The submissive attitude that we should develop in our discipleship is summarized by this Protestant hymn that Sister Neill F. Marriott several years ago in general conference: 

Have Thine own way, Lord!

Have Thine own way!

Thou art the Potter;

I am the clay.

Mould me and make me

After Thy will,

While I am waiting,

Yielded and still. 

As we cultivate that kind of humility before the Lord—trusting in Him as the Potter and knowing that we are the clay that He is molding according to His omnipotence—He will indeed help us to become “a saint” and be perfected through the atonement of Jesus Christ.