According to the Desire of (Our) Hearts ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take three to five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post is focus on October 1996 General Conference and it is called, “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts" by Neal A. Maxwell. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. 

Elder Maxwell mentioned the following; 

"... Exemplifying this happy reality are the doctrinal teachings concerning desire, which relates so directly to our moral agency and our individuality. Whether in their conception or expression, our desires profoundly affect the use of our moral agency. Desires thus become real determinants, even when, with pitiful naivete, we do not really want the consequences of our desires.

Desire denotes a real longing or craving. Hence righteous desires are much more than passive preferences or fleeting feelings. Of course our genes, circumstances, and environments matter very much, and they shape us significantly. ... what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive
in eternity.

Alma said, “I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, … I know that he allotteth unto men … according to their wills” (Alma 29:4). ... “For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:8–9). God thus takes into merciful account not only our desires and our performance, but also the degrees of difficulty which our varied circumstances impose upon us.

"All efforts begin with desire." - Dallin H. Oaks.

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.. God delights in blessing us, especially when we realize “joy in that which [we] have desired” (D&C 7:8). ... Satan “[desires] that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi. 2:27). 

                                                                                        

Mostly, brothers and sisters, we become the victims of our own wrong desires. Moreover, we live in an age when many simply refuse to feel responsible for themselves. ... But that deflection is, in itself, an act of choice, because we so desired. 

... Like it or not, therefore, reality requires that we acknowledge our responsibility for our desires. Brothers and sisters, which do we really desire, God’s plans for us or Satan’s? Whenever spiritually significant things are underway, righteous desires are present. 

No wonder desires also determine the gradations in outcomes, including why “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14; see D&C 95:5). It is up to us. God will facilitate, but He will not force. Righteous desires need to be relentless, therefore, because, said President Brigham Young, “the men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom, will find that they must battle every day” (in Journal of Discourses, 11:14). 

... Even a spark of desire can begin change. ... Remember, brothers and sisters, it is our own desires which determine the sizing and the attractiveness of various temptations. We set our thermostats as to temptations. Thus educating and training our desires clearly requires understanding the truths of the gospel, yet even more is involved.

President Brigham Young confirmed, saying, “It is evident that many who understand the truth do not govern themselves by it; consequently, no matter how true and beautiful truth is, you have to take the passions of the people and mould them to the law of God” (in Journal of Discourses, 7:55). ..."

Stay Tuned until next time.