“And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;” (Abraham 3:25). We describe our life on this Earth as a test. In fact, we may even think of life as a series of tests, but in actuality, all of the “tests” are merely parts of the one Great Test. If I were to try to articulate this Test as clearly as I am able, I would say that the Test is to see if a child of God who is stripped of almost all of their knowledge about their relationship with their Heavenly Father and of their own divine nature can still choose to be good and to obey the commandments and guidance of their God, even in the absence of a clear and compelling reason to believe that choosing the right will be for their good in the long run and in the face of so many more immediately compelling reasons to doubt or distrust God’s commandments or even God’s existence. In short, can we still act like a child of God even when we don’t remember that we are His child? And the answer is yes. Yes, we can live up to our divine nature more fully and more completely than anyone, including ourselves, would believe to be possible. Yes, in the absence of a full understanding of our divine nature and of our Heavenly Father’s love for us we do make mistakes. We get confused about the distinction between urgent things and important things. We can weigh our options and make the wrong call between a painful but necessary sacrifice that will lead to a deeper level of peace and joy and personal development and an enticing yet fleeting pleasure that will lead to a deeper level of shame and despair and isolation. We can get so wrapped up in our pain and our trauma and in unhealthy and unproductive coping mechanisms for dealing with all of that baggage that we get trapped in a survivalist, self-absorbed mindset where we have no room in our minds or our hearts for anyone or anything but our own pain. But despite all of this, regardless of whether we believe in one God or many or none, whether we are religious or just spiritual or completely secular, whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, nevertheless, our divine nature shines through in so many ways. Whenever we think about someone besides ourselves, whenever we say something kind or encouraging or honest, whenever we do the decent thing or the right thing, we are proving to our God that we will do all things whatsoever He commands us to. We are proving that even though we don’t remember our own divinity, or see the full scope of what we are doing or how it will benefit not only our own lives but the world as a whole, yet still we do the good thing anyway. I know some people like to argue that mankind is basically evil or basically good or we’re a blank slate that is molded by society or whatever other clever ideas the philosophers can come up with, but the real truth is that we are divine beings who don’t fully remember our divinity and God wants to see if we can still act like the divine beings we are despite our ignorance. I don’t fully understand why it is necessary for us to prove that we can act according to our nature even when we can’t remember our nature, but I do know that the more carefully and closely and completely I can prove to myself and to my Heavenly Father that I will follow His commandments, then the more and more He will reveal unto me my own divine nature and the more my understanding of my own divinity grows, then all the more will I be able to and ready and eager to follow His commandments ever more closely.
