Sabbath Devotional :: Conversion — Are We There Yet?

This is Phyllis Maddox on the day of her baptism (shared with her permission). My husband got to know her during his interview with her as mission president. He was so impressed with her that we drove across the mission to support her.

I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 38 years — since Elders Bishop and Christensen knocked at our door. I was baptized in the Baptist church at age 10. After my baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1981, I have grown as a disciple of Christ.

My course has more firmly been set on the conversion path.

Last year, I had to prepare a presentation for a missionary conference. It gave me an opportunity to search King Benjamin’s address to his people, found in Mosiah 4. The doctrines and principles he outlines have become a greater guiding pattern for my actions because they succinctly outline who we are to be.

“And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state. . . . And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mosiah 4:2).

Then “the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience” (Mosiah 4:3). King Mosiah told them to “trust in the Lord” and “be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith” until the end of their lives (Mosiah 4:6).

Having received such great comfort because of their deep faith in the Savior, King Benjamin went on to give the people what I call “actions of a converted person.”

Their hearts were ready to receive them. Verses 12–16 outline these actions:

12: “Be filled with the love of God . . . grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.”

13: “Live peaceably . . .”

14: “And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry . . .” (literally and spiritually).

15: “Teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness . . . teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

16: “And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need . . .”

Verse 26 gives a warning: “[F]or the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor . . . administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.”

As we are taught by our leaders, we are not just to read the scriptures but engrave them upon the “fleshy tables of the heart.” To me, that means apply the scriptures in our lives. This leads us down the gradual path toward conversion.

I love the song in our hymnal, “Because I Have Been Given Much” (Hymn 219):

Because I have been given much, I too must give
Because of thy great bounty Lord, each day I live,
I shall divide my gifts from thee, with every brother that I see,
Who has the need of help from me.

As followers of Christ, should we not live our lives as outlined in word and song?

We can be peacemakers.

The road to conversion will occur because our Heavenly Father provides the gift of agency. We are not forced. We choose to help others and we, at times, are the recipients. Succor — it’s never too late.