While attending church as a missionary in the Hilongos Leyte Branch in the Philippines, I was surprised to discover that the speaker that day was a recently returned missionary. My companion and I were surprised because at that time we didn’t know of any family that had a missionary out. After the service, we quickly made arrangements to visit her later that day. When we arrived at her house, her family made a big show of marching out of the house and refused to talk to us. After they left, I looked at the returned missionary, who hours earlier had delivered a powerful testimony of Christ and who also suffered from a deformed leg that forced her to live on crutches and simply asked, “How do you handle all of this?” She smiled and opened her well-worn copy of the Book of Mormon to Jacob 6:5 and read, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.” In this context, “cleave” means to “stick to” or “hold fast.” She explained that knowing God was cleaving unto her gave her strength to make it through her challenges. Her example and love of God has stayed with me ever since. There are many ways we can cleave unto God like worthily partaking of the sacrament, reading the scriptures, praying, attending church, and listening to God’s prophet. Today, I want to share three ways that have helped me cleave unto God.
First is to love God—truly love Him. One of the most powerful ways I have found to love God is to feel His love for me. As John wrote, “We love him, because he first loved us.”[1] Elder Jeffrey R. Holland likewise taught, “My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength.”[2] Loving God changes the nature of our obedience and increases our desire to be like Him. Let me illustrate this principle with a story.
When I was a young man, I spent summers working on my Uncle Bill’s farm. Each year we would spend weeks getting our old John Deere 95 Hillside Combine in working order to harvest our grain. The 95 Hillside was old even back then; I was pretty sure that the model just before it was pulled by horses. It was a tremendous effort to get the combine ready each season. One year, my uncle was able to purchase a used Massey Ferguson Combine. The Massey Ferguson was still old but newer than the 95 Hillside and it featured a cab, which I was very excited about.
One morning, my uncle asked me to drive up to the field and start cutting grain with the new combine. I was thrilled! As a newly licensed teenager, any excuse to drive, let alone run the combine, was exciting. Upon arriving at the combine, I went through a mental checklist of things my uncle had taught me, and within a few minutes, I was off and running. It was exhilarating until at the top of a hill I heard a loud clang from the engine. I quickly looked around the combine, and gauges and everything seemed to be okay, so I decided to ease the combine off the hill before checking what had happened. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, however, the combine was overheating. I started to panic. I had once observed my father let an engine run after climbing a hill to help it cool off so I decided not to turn the engine off. While sitting there I realized I was in the middle of a tall growth of grain. My uncle’s warning to never park a hot vehicle in a field pierced my thoughts and escalated my panic. I jumped out of the combine and rolled around on the ground to flatten the grain around the combine. Then I jumped back into the combine praying that the engine had cooled down. It had not. Panicked, I ran back to the pickup and drove to a neighbor’s field to ask for help. When I explained the situation to my neighbor, he just looked at me and said, “Well, did you turn it off?” I didn’t say anything, I just backed away jumped in the pickup, and drove as fast as I could back to the combine. When I arrived, the combine was sputtering and cackling. I quickly turned the engine off. At that moment, I had the thought that I should open the hood and see what had happened to the engine. I opened the hood to discover that the fan pulley had broken. No amount of letting the engine run would have cooled it down. Suddenly the weight of what I had done pressed down on me. For those of you who are unfamiliar with farm economics, losing a combine is a big deal. I was defeated; a wave of emotion hit me as I thought about how I would explain this to my uncle.
As I pulled up to the driveway, my uncle came out to meet me. I took a shaky breath and, with my head down, explained what had happened. I ended with the comment, “I guess you’ll never want me to run your equipment again.” He paused for a moment, looked at me, and said, “Well, you’re a better operator now than you were this morning.” I was taken back. I thought maybe he doesn’t understand how bad it is, but to his credit, he never said anything more about it, even when we had to pull out the old John Deere 95 to finish the harvest.
After that moment my feelings towards my uncle changed. I had always been a good worker; I was obedient and did my duty, but the mercy my uncle had shown to me was beyond my understanding. He could have crushed me in that moment by validating all the negative thoughts I was having about myself—how stupid I had been, how I had known better, how broken I felt inside—but instead he built me up and used this experience to help me grow. After that, I would wake up at 4 AM and get dressed, then lay in bed until I heard his footsteps on the floor above. Then I would race up the stairs to meet him by the door because I never wanted a day to start without him knowing how grateful I was and how much I loved him. My uncle’s mercy had switched my obedience from doing “chores” to working because I loved him.
This experience has helped me contextualize God’s love for me, because if my uncle could forgive me for ruining the combine, then I could start to understand how a loving Heavenly Father could forgive me of my combine big failures. I could start to get a glimpse of His willingness to work with me on the sins that so easily beset me.[3] And while I don’t understand how He could offer up His Only Begotten Son for me,[4] the fact that He did has changed the way I keep His commandments. I pray each day because I never want a day to go by that I don’t express my love for Him. I pour out my heart unto Him in my weakness because I need God in my life. Understanding God’s mercy and love for me, getting a glimpse of what Christ suffered for me, changes my obedience from compliance and duty to love and service. I cleave unto God because I love Him.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf teaches that “God knows you. You are His child. He loves you. Even when you think that you are not lovable, He reaches out to you. This very day—every day—He reaches out to you, desiring to heal you, to lift you up, and to replace the emptiness in your heart with an abiding joy. He desires to sweep away any darkness that clouds your life and fill it with the sacred and brilliant light of His unending glory.”[5]
Sister Susan H. Porter taught at our last general conference that “sometimes we mistakenly think that we can feel God’s love only after we have followed the iron rod and partaken of the fruit. God’s love, however, not only is received by those who come to the tree but is the very power that motivates us to seek that tree.”[6] Brothers and sisters, a loving God will work with you to grow your faith and love of Christ, but you must initiate the spark.[7] You must honor and “give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart.”[8] Last week, President Henry J. Eyring demonstrated how a young Elder Robert D. Hales did just that by living a life of faith despite strenuous callings and near constant health challenges. Clearly, Elder Hales cleaved unto God every day until the very end.
The second way to cleave unto God is to keep His commandments.[9] Benjamin Petrie commented on this week’s devotional discussion board: “I cleave unto God by following His commandments, praying, and reading the scriptures. When I do these things, I can see how it affects my days and how it helps me get through each day. When we cleave unto God, we keep His light with us, and that light can help us get out of our darkest moments.” Two scriptures provide us with both hope and a warning concerning keeping the commandments and receiving God’s love. The hope is found in John 15:10. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” The warning comes in Doctrine and Covenants 95:12. “If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness.” Our success in keeping the commandments lies not in exacting compliance but with our honest effort and sincere desire to keep them. As Elder Holland teaches by quoting Doctrine and Covenants 46:9, “’Verily I say unto you, [the gifts of God] are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep . . . my commandments, and [for them] that seeketh so to do.’ Boy, aren’t we all thankful for that added provision ‘and . . . seeketh so to do’! That has been a lifesaver because sometimes that is all we can offer!”[10]
President Russell M. Nelson recently taught that “the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.”[11] To illustrate this principle, it’s helpful to consider the differences between rewards that require a lot of effort and those that require very little. These two charts were first introduced to me at Ricks College by Brother Bruce Satterfield. They show the difference between the law of decreasing rewards and the law of increasing rewards. On the left, we can see that some things like rollercoasters and eating provide a big reward initially, but if you keep doing them, the worse you feel. I mean, can you imagine being on a rollercoaster for an hour? It also means that these activities can be addictive, especially ones like drugs, alcohol, and pornography.
On the right, we see examples of things that bring more reward the longer you do them, like earning a degree, learning a language, or musical instrument. Initially, they don’t provide many rewards, but if you persist, they are a source of lasting happiness. Keeping the commandments and growing your testimony require effort, but it is because of the effort that they change who we are. They make us more capable of being disciple-leaders in our homes, the Church, and our communities.
Now, that is the last thing Satan wants! So, can you imagine how he will tempt you when you’re trying to improve your life through effort? He will whisper in your ear, especially when you’re starting something hard, and say, “Wouldn’t you be happier scrolling social media? Or binging on that half-eaten container of ice cream?” He will tempt you to abandon your task in favor of a quick reward, and when you crash—and you will—he’ll tell you that you’ll never make it. That you’re worthless. That you’ll never overcome your addictions, habits, or trials so you might as well open another container of ice cream. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of both rollercoasters and ice cream, but taken to excess these types of activities will distract you from your potential, and Satan will do everything in his power to keep you in a cycle of low rewards because he knows that if you persist in a worthwhile task long enough, the rewards you’ll get from your effort will make you a more capable disciple of Jesus Christ and you’ll be less susceptible to his temptations. So, you see, brothers and sisters, the Lord gives us commandments and has high expectations of us because He wants us to have the transformation and lasting joy that comes through worthwhile effort.
The third way we can cleave unto God is to serve others. Jake Hatch posted in our devotional discussion board this week: “I cleave unto God by serving others. Charity is the pure love of Christ. As we live and serve as He did, we will cleave unto God and get closer to Him.” It’s telling that a prerequisite to taking upon ourselves the name of Christ through baptism is that we are “willing to bear one another’s burdens” and “mourn with those that mourn” and to “comfort those that stand in need of comfort.”[12] Indeed, it would be difficult to bear the name of Christ and not follow His example of service.
In terms of cleaving unto God, service provides two great benefits. First, it shifts our focus from ourselves—all of our wants, needs, and worries—to others. That shift opens up our hearts to feel God’s love, which makes it easier to forgive others and ourselves. Have you ever harbored ill feelings towards yourself or others? What does that feel like? Were you able to feel God’s love? Personally, I think it is impossible to cleave unto God while harboring ill feelings toward yourself or others. In 1 John we read, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”[13] The person sitting next to you is worthy of your love. The people you live with are worthy of your love. You are worthy of God’s love. The person who has wronged you needs your love. How can you deny that which God so freely gives? How can you hate those whom He clearly loves? If you want to cleave unto God and feel His love then serve others, especially those you find difficult to love.
As we serve others, a miraculous change happens in our hearts: we begin to desire the things of God more than the things of the world. We begin to adopt His attributes and act more fully as His disciples. We reach out in love to each other, our hearts knit together, and we build the kingdom of God on the earth. In short, we build Zion. That is the second way service helps us cleave unto God, by knitting our hearts together, because the places God wants us to go are not for us alone.[14]
Brothers and sisters, “believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.”[15] For “it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,” if we cleave unto Him, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”[16] I invite each of you to “in words of soberness that ye . . . cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you.”[17] In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] 1 John 4:19.
[2]Jeffrey R. Holland, “Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You,” Ensign, May 2016.
[3] 2 Nephi 4:18.
[4] John 3:16.
[5] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Believe, Love, Do,” Ensign, November 2018.
[6] Susan H. Porter, “God’s Love: The Most Joyous to the Soul,” Ensign, November 2021.
[7] Neal A. Maxwell, “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts,” Ensign, November 1996.
[8] Alma 32:28.
[9] John 14:15.
[10] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You,” Ensign, May 2016.
[11] Joy D. Jones, “An Especially Noble Calling,” Ensign, May 2020.
[12] Mosiah 18:8–9.
[13] 1 John 4:20–21.
[14] Mosiah 18:21.
[15] Mosiah 4:9.
[16] 1 John 3:2.
[17] Jacob 6:5.