“But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.” (Mosiah 7:33). I think that often when we find ourselves in bondage, or, in other words, suffering the painful consequences of sin, we assume that our hardships and privations are proactively being inflicted upon us by a wrathful and vengeful God. To put it another way, God Himself places us in bondage to punish us for our rebellion. We might even assume that He wants us to be in bondage and that it brings Him pleasure to see us receive our just deserts. This could not be farther from the truth. God is our Father and He loves us and it pains Him more than we can know to see us suffer. More importantly, our freedom is of supreme importance to our Heavenly Father, so much so that He will not violate our freedom even when we use that freedom to place ourselves in bondage because of our choices, nor will He rob us of our freedom by compelling us to leave our bondage even if it is for our own good. But it is our Father in Heaven’s deepest desire for us to shake off the chains that bind us and nothing brings Him greater pleasure than when we choose to turn to Him with full purpose of heart and serve Him with all diligence of mind so that we may become free from bondage. It is not God's will but our own that brings us into or keeps us in bondage. The moment we reach out to Him to help us cast off the chains and shake off the dust and walk in the light He will patiently and unfailingly work with us to leave our bondage behind.
