Alma 38:8

Alma38:8

. . . I did cry out unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, (and I did) receive a remission of my sins. But behold, I did cry unto him and I did find peace to my soul.

The second step of the 12-step program states, "Came to believe that the power of God can restore us to spiritual and emotional health."

From page 20 of the book Healing Through Christ we read:

"We begin to strengthen our spiritual health as we develop a deep trust that God's love and guidance will always sustain us through the challenges we are experiencing."

"Emotional health may be defined as learning to process our emotions in healthy ways, appropriately communicate our feelings and remain free from despair and helplessness. Learning to rely on the grace of Christ prevents our negative emotions from dominating and controlling our behaviors in a destructive way."

Take note of Alma's choice of words as he describes his experience. He cried for mercy.

This book - Healing Through Christ - then speaks about relying on grace.

Those two words are beautiful - Mercy and Grace. We ask for Mercy - we want to be understood in our struggles, to have compassion shown for our human weakness. We want desperately to know our feelings do not define us and that we can rise above our mistakes.

What we receive is Grace - the freely given and unmerited love of God with its forgiveness and healing.

I have experienced myself that incredible gift. At times when I knelt in prayer - seeking earnestly forgiveness for misdeeds - those are the times when I experienced God's love. Grace is the love of God given freely to us when we don't deserve it at all. It is our receiving that love that changes us and transforms us.

I don't believe we have to change and then God loves us. The opposite is true. We experienced His love when unworthy of it and then we know the power of pure, unconditional love. That love transforms us.

To find that love we have to approach "the mercy seat." We come seeking mercy, with a broken heart. That broken heart allows us to feel and receive the gift of grace, the love of the Father and the atonement of His son Jesus Christ.

In the book, The Christ Who Heals, by Terryl and Fiona Givens we read these words of an early Christian by the name of Macrina.

"Love is the life of God, and it cannot be otherwise, since perfect beauty is necessarily lovable to those who recognize it; and out of this recognition comes love. The insolence of satiety cannot touch this perfect beauty, nor can satiety ever put a stop to men's power to love what is entirely beautiful; and so the life of God consists in the eternal practice of love; and this life is holy, beautiful, possessed of a loving disposition toward beauty and never receiving any check in the practice of love. And because beauty is boundless, love shall never cease."

This is the love that we have the privilege every once in a while to feel. This is the love that transforms us. This is the love that we aspire to emulate. It is that which we seek as we cry out for mercy and it is that which we receive when we accept God's grace.