“Then Will I Make Weak Things Become Strong”

One of Satan’s greatest lies is that men cannot change.

While it is good to be authentic we should be authentic to our real, true selves as sons and daughters of God.

If ye shall keep my commandments then ye shall abide in my love.

The love is not conditional, it is constant but if we refuse to keep the commandments we will stand where we are often shielded from His blessings.

1. We must humble ourselves.
2. We must have faith in Jesus Christ.
3. Through His grace He can make weak things become strong.

Our divine destiny and purpose is to ultimately become like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Clinton Duffy was well known for his efforts to rehabilitate the men in his prison. Said one critic, ‘You should know that leopards don’t change their spots!’

“Replied Warden Duffy, ‘You should know I don’t work with leopards. I work with men, and men change every day.’”

While it is indeed good to be authentic, we should be authentic to our real, true selves as sons and daughters of God with a divine nature and destiny to become like Him. If our goal is to be authentic to this divine nature and destiny, then we will all need to change.

According to the logic of the world I could be authentically a cat if I feel like one despite the fact that I am a man. Where truth is involved authenticity that denies the truth is a lie.

The Lord…operates through conditions: conditions of faith, conditions of righteousness, conditions of repentance.…

Even God’s love, although infinite and perfect, is also subject to conditions. …

Elder D. Todd Christofferson further expounded on this gospel truth when he taught: “Some are wont to say, ‘The Savior loves me just as I am,’ and that is certainly true. But He cannot take any of us into His kingdom just as we are, ‘for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence.’ Our sins must first be resolved.”

God brings the cleansed and perfected version of us into His kingdom if we allow Him to.

The Savior, speaking through the prophet Moroni in the Book of Mormon, taught: “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Looking more closely at what the Lord is teaching us here, we see that He first says that He gives men and women weakness, singular, which is part of our mortal experience as fallen or carnal beings. We have become natural men and women because of the Fall of Adam. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can overcome our weakness, or our fallen natures.

He then says that His grace is sufficient and that if we will humble ourselves and have faith in Him, then He will “make weak things [plural] become strong unto [us].” In other words, as we first change our fallen natures, our weakness, then we will be able to change our behaviors, our weaknesses.

“We” is not us individually, it is us individually yolked with Christ. We do not change our own nature unaided.

Let’s review the requirements to change according to the Lord’s pattern:

First, we must humble ourselves.

Second, we must have faith in Jesus Christ.

Third, through His grace He can make weak things become strong. If we humble ourselves and have faith in Jesus Christ, then His grace will enable us to change. In other words, He will empower us to change.