Zion Is the Pure in Heart ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

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

This post focuses on a BYU Devotional, and it is called "Zion Is the Pure in Heart" by Sister Elaine S. Dalton. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights whilst I was reading the Devotional. 

Sister Dalton has mentioned; "... I have a unique and special connection with the young women because of the years in which I have served as a member of the Young Women general presidency. We have essentially gone through the Young Women years together. We’ve earned our Young Women medallions together. We have stood every week and repeated the words of the Young Women theme together: “We are daughters. . . . We will ‘stand.’ ... We believe . . . , we will be prepared.” 

I think of you as my young women. And I have seen many of you young men as you have received and advanced in the priesthood, honored your covenants and priesthood power, and prepared for and served missions throughout the world. I have met many of you in your mission fields. You are my heroes! You are amazing in your strength and courage and desire for righteousness.

The Lord Will Help You Make Important Decisions

Each one of you has embarked on a journey as a Latter-day Saint, and you are in the most critical time of life. This is the time for you to form eternal habits and make lasting decisions. ... You have been reserved “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). You will be presented with opportunities that far surpass your greatest expectations, and you will be blessed, as I was, with defining moments that will influence and affect this decade of decisions.

... I learned: As you exercise your faith through prayer, the Lord will help you make defining decisions in defining moments. He will hear and answer your prayers through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. You will not be left alone. You have been given the blessing to be able to receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

In Doctrine and Covenants section 8, the Lord promises each of us, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart” ... I bear witness that the Lord hears and answers our prayers and that He will guide and direct us as we seek to do His will and keep His commandments. This is the process of receiving personal revelation. ... I pray that this message will take root in your heart and that it will become very personal to you. 

I pray that the Holy Ghost will impress upon you the importance of this simple message so that you might be able to incorporate it into the important decisions that you will make during the defining moments of your life.

Lead the World in a Return to Virtue

The message I bring this evening is a clarion call for you, the young adults of this chosen generation, to lead the world in a return to virtue. What is virtue? Why is it important? And how can each of us join together in this noble and sacred cause?

... Each of you is on a journey to Zion, ... what the Lord has said applies: “Awake, and arise, ... come forth, and [do] not tarry” (D&C 117:2), for Zion is not only a place Zion is “the pure in heart” (D&C 97:21). And purity of heart must be your goal in order to reach that final destination! Never before has there been a generation quite like yours. 

You are better prepared and better equipped. You have what it takes, and now is the time for the run of your life your run to Zion! President Thomas S. Monson and those before him have shown us the way. The path is clearly marked, and the pace is steady and strong. .. You may not have to give up all your earthly possessions, but the journey to Zion requires that you give up all of your sins so that you may come to know Him the true and living Christ. 

You may even be asked to run to the point of exhaustion, but by doing so, the warmth of the Lord’s love will preserve you for the great work yet to come. What you are being asked to do is the same thing the Lord asked when He named His Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

... Zion was then, and is now, the goal. It is the cause of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And now is the time, as Mormon and Moroni exhorted, to “be faithful in Christ” (Moroni 9:25) and to “lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing” (Moroni 10:30). ... Now is the time to return to virtue!

A Return to Virtue Is a Return to Purity

Virtue means purity. It begins in the heart and in the mind. “It is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards.” At the very core of virtue is chastity meaning sexual purity. Virtue and chastity are inseparably connected. You cannot have one without the other. A return to virtue is a return to purity. Some have said that virtue means being kind or honest or having integrity. 

But the center of a virtuous life is chastity, and one simply cannot be honest or possess integrity in the absence of sexual purity. It is impossible. One cannot tamper with the divine spirit and precious body the eternal soul of another and be deemed as possessing any kind of virtue or be virtuous. To do this compromises the very agency we fought for in our premortal life. ... Thus virtue does not just apply to women but to all.

... As Elder Russell M. Nelson taught, the temple is really the reason for everything we do in the Church: “Every activity, every lesson, all we do in the Church points to the Lord and His holy house.” ... We must be worthy to enter the Lord’s holy temple and make and keep sacred covenants and to do the work we have been prepared and foreordained to do. No unclean thing can enter into His house. 

“Ye Are a Chosen Generation”

Each of you has a great work to do. What you do and what you decide matters because you matter. You are “choice spirits who were reserved to come forth in the fulness of times to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work, including the building of the temples and the performance of ordinances therein” (D&C 138:53–54).

No wonder Satan has increased the intensity of his attacks. If you can be distracted, delayed, or disqualified from entering into the temples and doing the very work you have been prepared and reserved to do, he wins. What becomes clear is that you must be pure and worthy in order to receive the promptings from the Holy Ghost that you need for the decisions you are making now. What also becomes clear is that you must remain worthy to enter the Lord’s holy temples.

All the sacrifice and work of all the prior generations have led to this moment. ... Peter said of you, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Never before has so much been expected. Never before has so much been given: prophets, scriptures, priesthood, ordinances and covenants, temples, the Book of Mormon, and the gospel in its fulness. You have been prepared, called, and chosen. 

This is your time. ... To accomplish the tasks you have been foreordained to do, your faith must be firmly centered on our Savior, Jesus Christ. You must remember that faith is not only a principle of power but of action. You must act on the faith you already possess. ... Young men, you were prepared to receive the priesthood, which would enable you to exercise the power of God while here on the earth. 

Young women, you were given the noble gift and responsibility to nurture others and become mothers to other choice spirits. You were entrusted with the very powers of godliness to create a mortal life. Virtuous people are committed to the sanctity of life. They respect God’s counsel on how life is to be conceived, protected, and nurtured. There is no strength that is greater than the strength of virtue nor any confidence that is more sure 

than the confidence of a virtuous life.

In the premortal realm you participated in a war. You fought with your faith and testimony to accept and sustain the plan that was presented by God the Father. You knew it was right, and you knew that the Savior would do what He said He would do because you knew Him! There were no neutral spirits in the War in Heaven, and there can be no neutral positions now where choices between right and wrong are to be made. 

The Lord Himself said, “He that is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). You stood with Him! You were eager for your assignment. You knew what was going to be required of you. You knew how difficult it would be, and yet you were confident you could not only accomplish your divine mission but that you could make a difference. 

As one prophet said of you and your day: For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. ... God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God.

All through the ages the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it you are a marked generation."

Stay Tuned until next time.