Altars of the Heart

Father Abraham was one of the earliest archetypes of Christ. He developed a very personal and direct relationship with God, and he received many magnificent blessings and promises from the Lord because of his great faith. Therefore, studying Abraham's acts can benefit our own development of faithfulness.

After Abraham gave up everything in the land of Haran to escape idolatry and follow the true God and seek for the blessings of the true priesthood, he led his family to the land of Canaan. In this setting we receive an insight into his developing relationship with God.

And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
-- Genesis 12:6-8

An altar is a raised platform on which gifts and sacrifices are offered to God. The altar represents our willingness to offer things we value to God, things we will give up so that we can receive even better things from Him. They may be physical things or spiritual. We may give up things we covet or that distract us. We may sacrifice money or time. We may exchange pleasure and ease for service.  Ultimately we offer our pride, our self sufficiency, and our agency. These are the best gifts.

In an altruistic sense, we should offer our gifts without expectation of return. We are, however, rarely altruistic with God. If we are wise, we know we cannot buy blessings. Nevertheless, in our desperate humility, we hope for a return. We hope our sacrifice makes us acceptable to God, so that when we call upon Him, He will hear us and answer generously. Our hope is not vain, for He truly blesses us. The tiniest sacrifice on our part brings great blessings from the Lord, especially when our sacrifice is a much beloved sin for which we finally sincerely repent.

These days the Lord does not expect us to build physical altars of stone on which we burn animal sacrifices. That law was superseded by Christ, who taught us to build altars of the heart on which we offer our broken hearts and contrite spirits.

Following Abraham's example, when we want to call upon God, we would do well to prepare our altar and offer a worthy sacrifice to prepare our hearts to enter His presence. If we ask, God will tell us what sacrifice He wants from us. The object of our sacrifice should not be of our choosing but of His for it to be truly worthy. God will tell us what we need to give, and then His response will be far greater and more glorious than whatever we have given up.

Call First

God showed to Moses the whole history of creation. It was from this grand vision that Moses wrote the book of Genesis. When the Prophet Joseph Smith read Genesis under the divine mandate to restore truths and details that had been lost or removed from the King James version, he produced what we now have as the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price.

The biblical version of Genesis Chapter 4 gives us a long list of "begats" and a little background of how Adam and Eve's posterity began to split apart along theological lines. While some of the children and grandchildren followed Adam's lead in obeying God, others became worshipers of Satan. The story of Cain and Abel, for example, is recounted in this chapter.

After telling us that Adam and Eve finally begat a righteous son named Seth who in turn begat a righteous son named Enos, the Bible account concludes with this statement:

Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
--Genesis 4:26

This is good news. After three generations and a good deal of drama and sorrow, people began to pray. We are not told quite why the children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve finally decided to pray, but at least they are on the right path.

In Joseph Smith's inspired retelling of these events, we receive a few details that are missing from the biblical version. We learn, for instance, that prior to the birth of Seth, who would be a worthy replacement for the murdered Abel, "Adam hearkened unto the voice of God, and called upon his sons to repent" (see Moses 6:1). Adam needed to do more than simply set a righteous example for his growing and wavering family. As we can read in the preceding chapter, God was not happy with the increasing evil and waywardness of Adam's offspring. Adam got the message and started preaching the gospel of faith and repentance to his children.

Joseph then expanded on the terse statement in Genesis about prayer to include a more specific details.

And then began these men [meaning Seth and Enos] to call upon the name of the Lord, and the Lord blessed them.
--Moses 6:4

So, first off, not everyone responded to the gospel message. Nevertheless, at least a few got it, and the first thing they did was start to pray. Secondly, when they started to pray, the Lord started to bless them, presumably in ways He had not previously blessed those who did not pray.

A profound formula falls out of this simple verse. Call first, and blessings follow.

Now, blessings may come anyway. God sends rain on the just and the unjust (see Matthew 5:45). Our loving Father is not so harsh that He cuts us off if we do not apply to Him regularly for our daily bread. We have ample evidence in the world that atheists and vile sinners can fare very well in temporal affairs.

We all get rain and sunshine, some maybe a little more than others. Prayer, however, yields blessings that transcend temporal good times. Peace, joy, forgiveness, mercy, love, and knowledge form the true prosperity that a relationship with God brings and is denied to those who do not turn to the source of real blessings.

Further, when we recognize the source of our blessings, both spiritual and temporal, they are richer, more fulfilling, and more inspiring.

The call to prayer is as old as time itself. Our Father is anxious to bless us. We just need to call first.

Call Upon the Name of the Lord

A faithful prophet in the Book of Mormon, later identified by Joseph Smith as Mahonri Moriancumr, had led a small group of faithful followers of Jehovah from the doomed Tower of Babel to a beautiful land on the shore of a vast ocean. The Lord had told Mahonri he would lead this little band of believers to a promised land. After journeying a long time through a trackless wilderness, this bountiful land by the sea must have felt like the promised land. So Jared, Mahonri, and their family and friends settled down and enjoyed the bounties of their supposed new home.

We then read this verse in the story of Mahonri:

And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.
--Ether 2:14

The seeming lapse in the prayer life of this prophet is a well-known account from which perhaps we can learn some valuable lessons about prayer. God chastened (i.e., corrected) the brother of Jared for failing to "call upon" Him. It seems highly unlikely to me that this faithful, humble prophet would have neglected his daily prayers. I mean, he may have missed a day here or there, but to stop praying all together for four years seems totally out of character for a man who had established a deeply personal and revelatory relationship with the Lord. So what was God upset about, and why did the brother of Jared need correcting?

I suggest that to "call on God" is more than the recital of a perfunctory prayer. It is more than just "saying" our prayers. When we call on the Lord, we put ourselves at His disposal, offer up our will, sacrifice our personal comfort, and find out what He wants from us. We don't stop seeking the Lord's will simply because we are in a comfortable place. However idyllic life on a sunny beach may seem, if we stop seeking more from God, we may never know how far He actually plans to take us.

Mahonri and his people had obeyed the Lord in leaving Babel, they had traveled many miles and crossed many rivers and mountains, and now they were at the edge of an impassable body of water. What more could the Lord possibly have for them to do? Were they not at the end of the journey? What more could the brother of Jared ask for?

Yet, there was more for him to do. The ocean was not the impenetrable barrier that it seemed to his mortal mind. The greatest revelatory experience was still ahead of him. The promised land was not a lazy beach but a vast continent in another hemisphere. The brother of Jared was missing the best the Lord had to offer because he had stopped calling on Him for more.

We ought not to assume that today's answer is tomorrow's answer, anymore than we should assume that every generation should build an ark or part the Red Sea or relax on the sea shore. God does not change, but our limited view within earthly time causes our circumstances to change. And with those changes must come new directions and added knowledge and inspiration from God. We have to stay open, seeking, and willing every day for when He is ready to give us the next piece of the puzzle.

Steadfast Prayer

The Nephites of Zarahemla had been blessed with a righteous, faithful, God-fearing king for most of a generation. King Benjamin had led his people through wars and tribulations, had brought them through rebellions and internal strife, and had established an unprecedented period of peace. The purpose of their peace, however, was not to provide for luxuries and an easy life, but to enable the growth and perpetuation of faith in the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Messiah.

Benjamin was not just their political leader, he was their spiritual leader, their prophet, the head of the church, which had spread among the population until it was pervasive. Now, the king and prophet of the Nephites was coming to the end of his life and his ministry. He had just preached the mightiest sermon of his career, and the resulting response from his people was all he could have hoped for. The people had renewed their knowledge of God, tasted of His love, received a remission of their sins, and made fresh covenants to be faithful.

This spiritual revival had touched the people and infused them with great joy. They were swept up in the sublime moment of their emotions and their gratitude. King Benjamin knew, however, that such moments can be fleeting if they are not cultivated and reinforced. And so, to cement this grand experience in the souls of his hearers, he offered the following counsel to teach them how to hold onto the joy they were feeling.

And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.
--Mosiah 4:11

To retain the spiritual rebirth in which they felt such great joy, they needed to remember and repent every day. Unless the well is refreshed regularly from its source, it will dry up. The key to daily remembrance and daily repentance, according to King Benjamin, is daily prayer.

Our covenant keeping cannot be sporadic or haphazard. We cannot expect one good day to tide us over for a month or a week, anymore than we can expect one good meal to sustain us for span of many days. Every Primary child is taught that just as their bodies need regular nourishment, so their spirits need regular nourishment. As King Benjamin told the Nephites, regular prayer is essential to every other aspect of our spiritual lives.

We must have God's help to overcome the natural man and receive the power of His spirit in our lives. Our "nothingness" as "unworthy creatures" is not a judgment of how God sees us but a reminder of how we ought to see ourselves in comparison to Him. By ourselves we lack the power to make the kinds of changes in our lives that God expects of us. He, on the other hand, has all power, including the power to change us, heal us, and lift us up.

When we pray daily, therefore, we keep the channels of communication open and clear, and God's help will flow freely to us. Steadfastness in everything else hinges on steadfast prayer.