Obrando en la Viña: After All We Can Give

I always hated math class. 1 + 1 always seemed to equal 2... Truth be told, my dad got me through Calculus. He never made me good at it, but at least I got the principle.

Then I got confused when one day I read that with grace, God makes up the difference. That He can make 1 + grace = perfection. I never understood that principle.

I spent most of my mission studying grace. I wanted to understand it, this power that makes 1 + 1 eternal and infinite... That makes 1 + 1 enough, when He asks of us our everything, and our all will never be enough.

I'm no good at eternal math. I couldn't understand it.

"In the 1820s, consecrate was defined as 'to make or declare to be sacred, by certain ceremonies or rites; to appropriate to sacred uses; to set apart, dedicate, or devote, to the service and worship of God.' Members of the Church today, in living the law of consecration, are expected 'to appropriate themselves to sacred uses.' Doing so requires them to dedicate their time, talents, and possessions to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its purposes. Perhaps we may never be asked to give all, but our willingness to put everything on the altar is a sign between us and God that we submit to His will in all things.

"'The law of consecration is the consummation of the laws of obedience and sacrifice, the threshold of the celestial kingdom, and the last and hardest requirement made of men and women in this life.'" (Personal Consecration, Elder Stephen B. Oveson)

Consecration is the act of giving our all to the Savior. It is the way we hand over our everything. The way we hold nothing back. The last and the hardest law for God's children to live.

Give Him all you have and He'll make it enough.

Give Him your All and He'll make it enough.

So here we are, in our time here on earth, and we're trying to figure out the law of consecration. We're trying to figure out the equation. What is the factor that lies between consecration and perfection and us? What is it that makes our 1 + 1 infinity?

"Grace is the divine help and strength we receive through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the power that purifies and perfects us after all we can do. Reliance upon His grace enables us to progress and grow in righteousness." (True to the Faith)

It looks great on the chalkboard.

Consecration + Grace = Perfection

But why does it work?

Consecration: When we give our all to the Savior.
Grace: The enabling power of the Atonement that makes our all enough.

Perfection would never be possible without the gift of His grace.
And His grace could not flow freely without the gift of our ALL.
What is the name for our all? Consecration.

Our consecration is the key to His grace.

Why would the Savior, then, ask us to give Him our all?

Because He wants to make us miserable? Because He wants our life to be hard?

NO.

Because He wants perfection to be possible, and He wants it for ALL of God's children.

Elder Bruce C. Hafen taught, "We can have eternal life is we want it, but only if there is nothing else we want more. So we must willingly give everything, because God Himself can't make us grow against our will and without our further participation. Yet even when we utterly spend ourselves, we lack the power to create the perfection only God can complete. Our all by itself is still only almost enough--until it is finished by the all of Him who is the finisher of our faith. At that point, our imperfect but CONSECRATED almost is enough."

He continues by saying, "Almost is especially enough when our own sacrifices somehow echo the Savior's sacrifice, however imperfect we are... May we not shrink when we discover, paradoxically, how dear a price we must pay to receive what is, finally, a gift from Him. When the Savior's all and our all come together, we will find not only forgiveness of sins, 'we shall see Him as He is,' and 'we shall be like Him.'"

Why would a loving God ask us to give Him our all? Why would He ask us to live the law of consecration? Why is that a law that we promise to obey in the temple?

Because He wants us to be perfect, and we cannot be perfected without the power of His grace.
Because He wants us to be perfect, and our CONSECRATION is the only way to unlock the Savior's grace.
The law of consecration is the law of the Celestial Kingdom because it is the only way for Him to make us pure enough to enter. It is the only way for Him to make us perfect enough to enter.

Our consecration is the key to His grace. His grace is the key to exaltation.
It is the key to our one-day perfection.

So what's the part of the equation that we can do?

We can live the law of consecration.

And what exactly is the law of consecration?

It is giving our time, talents, and everything to hasten the work of the Lord.
It is an entrega completa of ourselves to the Lord--when we give Him our hearts and our will and our pride, because without it, we know that He can make us so much more.

I learned that the law of consecration is not a law of temporal or material goods. It is a law of the HEART. As we give ourselves fully to the Savior--that is the law of consecration.

And, as Nephi teaches in 2 Nephi 25--
"It is by grace we are saved, after all we can do."

But I like to think of it better...
"It is by grace we are saved, after all we can GIVE."

Let no price be too great to live the law of consecration.

Let no price be too great to give to Him our all.

Because in terms of forever--in the terms of eternal math--1 + 1 can always reach forever, but only if our 1 is 100% of ourselves.

Our all + His all = ENOUGH.

I love you with all of my heart! ;)
Hermana Sanford :)