Unless We Yield

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19). A fight will continue until one side yields or surrenders. In our natural state we are enemies to God. Whatever God wants us to do, we want to do the opposite, and in fact, will fight like mad to preserve our right to do the opposite. The really sad part about all of this is that since God only wants what is best for us, our natural instinct to fight against the enticings of the Spirit means that we run headlong into exactly the sort of thing that will hurt us the most. There is a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the knights storm the castle and Sir Lancelot begins hacking at the great stone walls of the castle with his sword. It is completely useless and pathetic and hilarious watching him bang his sword against the rock to no purpose. It may be our natural inclination to be an enemy to God, but this is very, very stupid. God has all power, both in heaven and on earth. We might as well rush up to a big castle and start hitting it with a sword for all the good it will do for us to try to fight against God. And God does not make it easy for us to make Him our enemy. He gives credence to our little rebellions not at all, but patiently waits for us to tire ourselves out and then scoops us up in the arms of His loving mercy and helps up ease and heal our battered souls. The natural man may be an enemy to God, but God is not an enemy to the natural man. The fight is completely one sided. We are an enemy to God just as long as we choose to be and not a moment longer. The moment we choose to yield, to surrender to the superior force is the moment that the war is over. Once we make ourselves allies rather than enemies to God, there is no more fighting to be done. God is in and through and a part of all things. When we fight against God, we're fighting against the whole world, and everything in it, including and especially the clear thinking, smart part of ourselves that thinks that whacking a great stone wall with a bit of metal is pretty stupid and pointless. If we set ourselves against God, then we will be fighting forever and ever, because God is infinite and eternal and everywhere. But if we yield to God, then we will instead be at peace forever and ever.