Mildness is not weak, it's gentle power

Dear friend

In the movies the power or voice of God is usually represented by deep, loud, earth-shattering utterances that terrify the people and cause ostentatious displays of omnipotence. How real is this? Consider the example of two humble missionaries, imprisoned for imparting the word of God, and who were in mortal danger from a massive mob closing in to inflict their death. This would surely make an ideal setting for some Godly grandstanding through an impressive intervention. At the point of the malicious mob nearing, the incident is described in the Book of Mormon, Helaman 5:28-30.

28 And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them.
29 And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants whom I have sent unto you to declare good tidings.
30 And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul—

So the Hollywood hullabaloo of divine displeasure didn't materialise. Mildness, perfect mildness, masked the manifestation of God's authority. He didn't need to shout. That's not how Spirit speaks to spirit.

King David recognised this principle of peaceful preternatural presence even in his own monarchical majesty; as from the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 22:36.

36 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great.

God's preferred personality trait is gentleness; a mildness sustained by underlying magnificence. The lesson for us is to mimic His mildness. For example, even when raising a proselytising warning voice, as taught in Doctrine and Covenants 38:41.

41 And let your preaching be the warning voice, every man to his neighbour, in mildness and in meekness.

So mildness is not weakness but meekness. Gentleness is understated might. I pray we will continually seek to develop the Messiah's mild manner.

Samuel.

See God moving in majesty and power

Dear friend

I remember times when I was quite young, and it would be a clear but not too cold an evening. I would lie on the ground, on my back, looking upwards into the night sky. I would look up at all the stars, so many of them. Then I would look harder and see so many many more. I would try to stretch my finite mind towards comprehending the infinity that filled my vision, hoping for a glinting glimpse of galactic grandeur. I thought of each star being a glowing sun in its own system; a million million million of them (and that's just the visible Universe). It was truly awesome and I loved it.

I believe the scriptures encourage us to do a little "big thinking" every so often, so that we might contemplate the eternity on our doorstep. One such passage comes from Doctrine and Covenants 88:45-47.

45 The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God.
46 Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?
47 Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.

If we could travel through the expanse of space to see the stars closer up, we surely could not help but be overwhelmed by these massive spheroids. And as believers, how much more appreciative would it make us of the organisational omnipotence of the Being who created them all, without number?

It is all held in place by the power of Our God. The more we learn about His creative completeness, the more we see we have still more to learn. But even the merest morsel of understanding allows us to "see God moving in His majesty and power".

I hope that when you do your big thinking, it gives you a greater sense of the immense power and glory of God. And to think, in spite of all that work and responsibility, He still makes time for you and me.

Samuel.