Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings ~ Part One

      Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

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

What is your definition of the word, "sacrifice"? What does "sacrifice" means to a immediate relative? 

What is your definition of the word, "blessings"? What does "blessings" means to a immediate relative? 

This post focuses on October 1971 General Conference talk, and it is called "Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings" by Elder Hartman Rector, Jr. This post is part one, and I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk. 

Elder Rector, Jr has mentioned the following; 

"Last fall the Lord announced through his prophet that the Church would hold family home evening on Monday nights. It is interesting that about the same time, the other side announced that there would be professional football games on Monday nights.

You might be surprised to know how many families tried to work family home evenings in between half time of the football games. ... It appears the prophet’s request required too great a sacrifice. In the fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord sets forth the qualifications for the labors of the ministry. 

He says that they are “faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God.” The faith, hope, charity, and love we know something about. ... But the eye single to the glory of God is probably the most important of those qualifications. 

Generally speaking, “an eye single to the glory of God” means sacrifice. It means that instead of endlessly doing what we want to do, we have to do what the Lord wants us to do, but we have to do it in his way when he wants us to do it. This, of course, is not the natural inclination of man.

We hear much in the world today about “doing our own thing.” ... I think it has been going on since the beginning of time. Perhaps this is just a little different way of saying it. Certainly Lucifer did his own thing, contrary to the will of the Lord. ... The prophet Lehi’s statement that “men are, that they might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25) is all-inclusive.

"Surely in the work of the Lord, it is what we do after
we think we have done enough that really counts with
him, for that's when the blessings flow." 
- Elder Hartman Rector, Jr.

On the other hand, Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his “only” son Isaac as a burnt offering to the Lord. I presume Abraham could not have received a more disagreeable commandment from his Heavenly Father. Still he arose immediately, took his son and the necessary firewood, and started for the designated place. 

He could not be diverted from his course until an angel of the Lord intervened to stay his hand. And what was the reward for such action? Hear the Lord’s statement to Abraham: “… because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. … “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:16–18.)

Jesus, our Lord and Master, was the greatest example of all in following in obedience to his Father’s commandments. His great agony in the Garden I presume has never been approached and cannot be matched by human man. 

... The Master did not want to endure what was before him even though he knew this was the major purpose of his coming to earth but he did what his Father had asked, and because he did, he holds “all power … in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18) and has, as Paul records, become “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), and as many as receive him become his sons and daughters.

And how was it done? It was possible only through sacrifice. Truly sacrifice does “bring forth the blessings of heaven.” But how and why it happens seems to be difficult to understand, and perhaps few people really do understand it. 

Maybe this is the reason so few persons are willing to make the required sacrifice to allow the work of the Lord to fully succeed. ... The Prophet said, “An actual knowledge to any person, that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God without which no person can obtain eternal life

... It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. …

“It was in offering sacrifices that Abel, the first martyr, obtained knowledge that he was accepted of God. And from the days of righteous Abel to the present time, the knowledge that men have that they are accepted in the sight of God is obtained by offering sacrifice."

Stay Tuned until next time.