I’ve been thinking all week what I wanted to say here. And all week, one phrase from this week’s lesson keeps coming to my mind, and it comes from Malachi chapter 3: “And prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts” (v. 10). I find that phrase fascinating. I find it interesting that the Lord would ask us to prove Him. I want to focus my comments here today on that phrase: “And prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:10).
Most of you recognize that this comes from a verse about tithing—and the Lord’s challenge concludes with the promise that He will “open … the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).
Mary Fielding Smith, the wife of Hyrum and the mother of President Joseph F. Smith, understood this principle. Of her, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “After she lost her husband in the martyrdom at Nauvoo and made her way west with five fatherless children, Mary Fielding Smith continued in her poverty to pay tithing. When someone at the tithing office inappropriately suggested one day that she should not contribute a tenth of the only potatoes she had been able to raise that year, she cried out to the man, “William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. [I need a blessing.] By keeping this and other laws, I expect to … be able to provide for my family.” Said Russell M. Nelson: “[God] tithes His people to bless them.” And said President James E. Faust: “Members of the Church who do not tithe do not lose their membership; they only lose blessings.”
But this particular challenge—to ask us to prove Him—applies to more than just the principle of tithing, for we know that, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (D&C 130:20-21). Thus, each commandment has an accompanying blessing; and as we live those commandments, God will bless us accordingly. In so doing, He proves that His commandments are for our blessing and benefit.
I do not think it is coincidental that the same chapter in which our God asks him to prove us, ends with this verse:
“Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not” (Malachi 3:18).
The Lord here tells us that we will be able to see a distinctive difference between those that serve God and keeps his commandments—and the lives of those who do not. The Savior described this concept more succinctly when he said: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Herein lies the proof—the proof of God’s love and His willingness to bless us. I personally have seen a common thread in the lives of those people whom I admire most—and that common thread is a love of the gospel and a desire to walk in God’s path. I can see in their lives, the fruit that has sprung from their seed of faith. I can see how in serving Christ, they have become Christlike. I have also seen personally in my life that all good things I have in my life come from trying to live the gospel—With God’s help, my talents have been amplified, my relationships made sweeter, and my life’s path has been made more enjoyable. I don’t know where I would be without the Church—but I know I wouldn’t be happy without it.
The Savior once said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17). It is through the living of the gospel, that such a man will find his life enriched, his ability to love increased, his happiness multiplied and the promised blessings from a loving Father realized.
We are the product of our decisions. Once again, it was the Savior who said: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Simply put: make better decisions, be a better person. If you want to be the best person you can be, make the best decision you can make: Live the commandments. If you live the commandments, God will mold you into the kind of person you need to be. My favorite quote at the moment comes from President Ezra Taft Benson, who said: “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.”
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said, “To open the windows of heaven, we must conform our will to God’s will. Diligent, enduring obedience to God’s laws is the key that opens the windows of heaven. Obedience enables us to be receptive to the mind and will of the Lord. ‘The Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient’ (D&C 64:34) are those who receive the blessings of revelation through the open windows of heaven.”
The prophet Azariah once received this admonishment from the Spirit: "Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded" (2 Chronicles 15:7). King Benjamin said, “He doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you” (Mosiah 2:24). For each commandment lived, a blessing is rendered.
In reflecting on this principle this week, my thoughts turned to my family. I have been blessed to live in a family that is really close. I feel a real kinship to my brother and my sisters, and a great love for my nieces and nephews. I have a hard time imagining a family closer than mine. And it is all because of the way my parents raised us.
The results of their endeavors were evident last week when my family gathered together for Christmas, and that meant our house was full of people, mostly little kids, running around and having a great time, enjoying the company of their cousins. Every nook in our house seemed to have a kid in it. There wasn’t much quiet in our home over the Holidays, but there was a lot of love. I always love it when my siblings visit; they are the best friends I have. And the nieces and nephews are a lot of fun, and they all get along so well, and they are always excited to see each other. We had a family talent show on Saturday night, and then the kids acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. In each of these experiences, the love we all have for each other and the joy we receive from interacting with one another were evident.
What makes this so remarkable is that neither one of my parents came from a home with a strong familial bond. As I reflect on that feeling that exists in my home, I must ask myself: “How could two people who came from cold homes create a home so embedded with warmth and love?” The answer is this: When they were newly married, my parents heard a prophet speak, and he asked families to do three things: family prayer, family scripture study and family home evening. My parents decided they would follow the prophet. These are simple things, really, but “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). The prayers, the scriptures and the home evenings brought into our home, the Spirit. And the Spirit knit our hearts together. There was love in our home this past week because the Spirit was there. My parents were able to build a great family because they didn’t rely on their themselves; they relied on God.
They allowed Heavenly Father into their home; they taught their children gospel principles that they themselves lived; and they followed God’s prophets. In essence, they turned their lives and, more specifically, their family over to God, and he blessed their family with the love and closeness that was so foreign to my parents growing up, but now was so real in the family they raised. In turning over their family to God, they found He could do more with them than they could. In short, God proved himself to my parents. He had issued a command through his prophet; they obeyed; He blessed them. I believe that they would tell that the closeness of their children and the joy they receive from their family exceeds what they expected when they first became parents. Because unto them, the Lord opened the windows of heaven and showed them how aware He is of them. I saw a sign in a store recently that said, “All this because two people fell in love.” I think that fits my family, if you add one line: “All this because two people fell in love and followed the Lord.”
It is through our living the gospel, that God proves His dependability to us. I believe this trait, His dependability, is one of His greatest traits. He will never let us down.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said: “Though His creations are so vast as to be numberless even to computerized man, has Jesus not told us that the very hairs of our head are numbered? (See Matt. 10:30; Moses 1:35–38.)
“Did not the resurrected Jesus stand by an imprisoned Paul, telling him to be of good cheer and calling him on his mission to Rome? (See Acts 23:11.) Likewise, Jesus stands by the righteous in all their individual ordeals.
“Did not this good and true Shepherd forego repose after the glorious but awful Atonement in order to establish His work among the lost sheep, disobedient in the days of Noah? (See 1 Pet. 3:18–20.) Did He not then visit still other lost sheep in the Americas? (See John 10:16; 3 Ne. 15:17, 21.) Then still other lost sheep? (See 3 Ne. 16:1–3.) What can we tell Him about conscientiousness? Indeed, we cannot teach Him anything! But we can listen to Him. We can love Him, we can honor Him, we can worship Him! We can keep His commandments, and we can feast upon His scriptures! Yes, we who are so forgetful and even rebellious are never forgotten by Him! We are His “work” and His “glory,” and He is never distracted! (See Moses 1:39.)”
Think about that for a moment. He is never distracted from us—He is always aware of us. As I review my life and my past experiences, I must conclude that this is true. I can say, as it does in the hymn that I “doubt not the Lord nor his goodness.”
I’ve “proved him in days that are past” (“We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet”). Indeed, His love for us has been proven—it was proven in the Garden and on the Cross, when, in the Meridian of time, He took upon Himself all the pains, all the afflictions, and, most importantly, all the sins of mankind. It was there that He proved his love by descending below them all and then giving His life so that we might live in the Kingdom of His Father. He alone blazed the trail back home, which He walked alone so that we might know the way.
Neal A. Maxwell said: “His clearly defined footprints are easy to see. They are pressed distinctly and deeply into the soil of the second estate, deeply and distinctly because of the enormous weight which pressed down upon Him, including the awful burden of all of our individual sins. Only He could have carried it all. I thank the Savior personally for bearing all which I added to his hemorrhaging at every pore for all of humanity in Gethsemane. I thank Him for bearing what I added to the decibels of His piercing soul-cry atop Calvary.”
I too would like to add my gratitude for what Christ bore for me that I would have a chance. I can never repay Him. But I can give Him what little I have—my choices. He gave His life for me; I want to turn my life over to Him. After all, He has been proven; it is me who has not. For that is why all of us are here, or, in the words of Christ:
“And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
“And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever” (Abraham 3:25-26).
We do not need to prove Him; we need to prove ourselves. And we do that by simply following Him, for which, we will blessed and, hopefully, one day, crowned in glory and exalted because we followed the One who gave His life for us.
