An Eye Single to His Glory

President Nelson taught, “The critical difference between your just hoping for good things for mankind and your being able to do good things for mankind is education.” In this talk he told of how he had spent many years researching the human heart in order to finally help develop the first heart-lung machine to keep blood flowing in a person while their heart was temporarily stopped and repaired. After recounting some of these efforts he remarked, “Long years elapsed before we were able to graduate from the laboratory to practical application in the operating room of a hospital. But finally it happened in 1951. The human heart could be opened. In the years that followed, thanks also to research in laboratories and clinics at many other universities, defective valves and other components could be repaired. The pioneering road was long and rugged. More than eight years elapsed from the time I received my doctor of medicine degree before I performed the first successful open-heart operation in Utah in 1955.” But his education and study had proved incredibly beneficial to mankind as people who previously had no hope for healing could have their defective hearts repaired. He then encouraged us, “So… maintain your motivation and perseverance to do work of worth. It will be a measure of your individual righteousness. No matter what your career may be, the long hours of sacrifice and effort required to achieve excellence are really worth it.” But that must be done with “eye single to the glory of God” as he also highlighted when the Lord spoke about missionary work (Doctrine and Covenants 4:5). Whatever we do in this life, we should do it with our eye fixed on the Lord and His glory. President Nelson’s work to bless mankind with increased knowledge to heal indeed was done for the glory of God, and our work can be the same if we seek to put the first two commandments first.   

                This invitation to work with an eye single to the glory of God is repeated numerous times in the Lord’s revelations in these latter days. He instructed us concerning the sacrament: “It mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 27:2). To William Phelps he said this concerning his desire to be baptized, “Thou art called and chosen; and after thou hast been baptized by water, which if you do with an eye single to my glory, you shall have a remission of your sins and a reception of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands” (Doctrine and Covenants 55:1). When Joseph Smith first went to Missouri with others who were to establish Zion there, the Lord said, “Behold, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:1). The Lord spoke of developing our talents in these words: “And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:18-19). The Lord also encouraged the Saints in the olive leaf revelation: “And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:67-68). So, we should be baptized, share the gospel with others, partake of the sacrament, keep the commandments, develop our talents, and sanctify ourselves all with our eye single to the glory of God. Whatever work we do in our lives, both in our temporal and spiritual affairs, if we focus singly on Him, seeking to accomplish His will and serve Him above ourselves, we have this incredible promise that one day we will see Him and “he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.”