...we all have some habits or flaws or personal history that could keep us from complete spiritual immersion in this work. But God is our Father and is exceptionally good at forgiving and forgetting sins we have forsaken, perhaps because we give Him so much practice in doing so. In any case, there is divine help for every one of us at any hour we feel to make a change in our behavior. God gave Saul “another heart.” Ezekiel called on all of ancient Israel to cast off her past and “make … a new heart and a new spirit.” Alma called for a “mighty change” that would cause the soul to expand, and Jesus Himself taught that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Clearly the possibility of change and living at a more elevated level has always been one of the gifts of God to those who seek it.
For the blessing of receiving the greatest of all possessions—the gift of eternal life—it is little enough that we are asked to stay the course in following the High Priest of our Profession, our Day Star, Advocate, and King. I testify with obscure Amaleki of old that each of us is to “offer [our] whole souls as an offering unto him.” Of such determined, steadfast devotion, we sing:
Praise the mount; I’m fixed upon it:
Mount of thy redeeming love. …
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above.
The Greatest Possession | Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
October 2021
