Importance of Conversion (Part Two)

March 14, 2011

President Harold B. Lee said that our number one focus should be to become converted. He mentions that even Peter, our Lord's chief apostle, needed to be re-converted. Peter had a testimony that Jesus was the Son of God.

(Matt. 16: 13-17)

13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Not even a year went by until Peter was rebuked by the Master and told that he needed to be converted again.
(Luke 22: 31-32)

31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Now if Peter had trouble staying converted how much more do all of us need to focus on maintaining our testimony and conversion? We must always be vigilant keeping the commandments so that we may be worthy of having the Holy Ghost there to warn us when Satan is about to throw a wrench into our spokes.
I realize now that even though I feel strong, spiritual, healthy, and enlightened; I am not unstoppable. In fact, because of these things I am that much more of a target to the Adversary than before. When I am doing good and the Lord is blessing me, my guard is down. When I am going through trials and being afflicted with sorrow, grief and pain' I am actively striving to follow every commandment implicitly.
They call it the "pride cycle." The Book of Mormon shows us this cycle over and over. Now I am going to make sure that I am consistently humbling myself. I keep praying that the Lord will strengthen me in the trials I know will come again. I acknowledge that I am nothing without His saving grace. I realize that as soon as I let my pride take over and I start envisioning myself as "strong," I am really becoming weak.
Christ has said the first will be last and the last will be first. The sad thing is I ALWAYS want to be first in absolutely everything. My number one goal this month is to work on detaching myself from winning and having to be right. Please keep me in your prayers, I am going to need it!