Day 66 | What Good Thing
March 7, 2015 - WEEK TEN
Heinrich Hoffman, Christ and the Rich Young Ruler, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
DAILY READING
Matthew 19:16-30, 20:1-16
Mark 10:17-31
Luke 18:18-30
For Younger Disciples
CONSIDER AS YOU READ
- Do you like to feel important? What helps you feel important?
- What do we learn from this parable about serving in the Lord’s kingdom?
- What message of comfort can this parable have for converts to the Church?
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
I do not apologize for trying to speak about one of what Paul called “the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), only for my inability to go deeply enough.
While we see this quality in the quiet but spiritually luxuriant lives of the genuine, spiritual heroes and heroines about us, the lack of it keeps so many of us straggling in the foothills and off the peaks in the adventure of full discipleship. I refer to our hesitancy and our holding back in submitting fully to the Lord and His purposes for us.
This holding back is like leaving Egypt without journeying all the way to the Holy Land, or waiting in Nauvoo for the railroad to come through, or staying permanently at Winter Quarters.
Though possessed of other fine attributes, we may still lack this one quality. Such was the case with the righteous young man who knelt sincerely at Jesus’ feet. Lacking one thing, he went away sorrowing and unsubmissive when a particularized challenge was given (Mark 10:21–22; Luke 18:22–23). Whether it is walking away without looking back from “great possessions” (Mark 10:22), or from a statusful place in the secular synagogue (see John 12:42–43), or from proud but erroneous attitudes accrued over the years, or merely “straightway” from fishing nets (Mark 1:18), the test is always the same.
With honest, individualized introspection, each of us could name what we yet lack—and in my case more than one thing.
Spiritual submissiveness is so much more than bended knee or bowed head. Alas, insofar as we “mind the things of the flesh” (Rom. 8:5), we simply cannot have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16) (Neal A. Maxwell, “Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, 70).
READ ENTIRE TALK
ADDITIONAL MEDIA
FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
QUESTIONS FOR YOUNGER DISCIPLES
- How does paying tithing help us to not put our trust in riches?
- Did Jesus ask too much of the young man?
- When we serve a mission, do we leave everything and follow Him?