The distance
Almost no one honestly considers the abundant evidence they have of their distance from God. In the scriptures, we regularly read of examples of people whose lives were full of the undeniable, significant, and abundant fruits of a rich relationship with God. Because God does not change,1 those who enjoy anything less should admit that their distance from God is much greater than that of those they read about in the scriptures.2
The distance between you and God is a result of your lack of understanding of how he is, which is itself due to your unwillingness to live up to what you already know about him. Each way in which you think, feel, or act less than the best you know creates impedance between you and God.3 Every difference between how you are and how you believe God to be creates an obstruction in the flow of God’s goodness to and through you.
It is possible to close the distance between you and God. This is done as you learn about and make whatever changes are necessary to become more like him. In order to begin increasing the flow of God’s goodness in your life, you must first live up to the goodness he has already revealed to you.4 To move towards God requires you to consistently think, feel, and do what you perceive as best and to improve your understanding of what is best. To clear the obstructions between you and God and maximize the flow, you have to pierce and tear the barriers, obtaining a “broken heart and contrite spirit” through fully emulating the example of God, as far as you understand him to be:
8 Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice— yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command— they are accepted of me.
9 For I, the Lord, will cause them to bring forth as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream, that yieldeth much precious fruit. (D&C 97)
God will reveal himself even further to those who seek out and take advantage of opportunities to learn more about him.5 Learning more about him includes learning more about reality and what is best. All things testify of God.6 To the extent that you turn away from opportunities to learn more about reality, you turn away from opportunities to learn more about God.7 God is the spirit of truth.8 To the extent that you fail to live up to any truth you know, you fail to live up to what you know about him.9 To the extent that you reject the truth in anything, you reject him.10 To the extent that you allow absurdities to be proclaimed without standing up for the truth, you fail to stand as a witness of Christ,11 and he will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him.12
As you exercise the faith of obeying his example as far as you see it and search to learn more about God, you will grow nearer to him.
Footnotes
- 1. For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith. (2 Nephi 27:23) ↩
- 2. Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain. For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made. (Moroni 7:36-38) ↩
- 3. For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; (D&C 1:31) ↩
- 4. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. (Acts 5:32) ↩
- 5. And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. (Alma 12:10) ↩
- 6. And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me. (Moses 6:63) ↩
- 7. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:11-12) ↩
- 8. The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth; (D&C 93:26) ↩
- 9. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7) ↩
- 10. But behold, ye have rejected the truth, and rebelled against your holy God; and even at this time, instead of laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where nothing doth corrupt, and where nothing can come which is unclean, ye are heaping up for yourselves wrath against the day of judgment. (Helaman 8:25) ↩
- 11. Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— (Mosiah 18:9) ↩
- 12. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:26) ↩