Our place in His kingdom

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Afternoon Session of the October 2014 Conference. 

I find myself thinking about "confidence before God" frequently ever since President Nelson's talk last year. (His last Conference talk! 😢) It's such an interesting idea—the thought that our own lack of confidence is often what keeps us from receiving more from God. You'd think, with pride being such a danger to our souls, that maybe confidence would be dangerous too. And perhaps some kinds are. But not the confidence that lets us boldly approach the throne of grace, because that is based on obedience and trust in God. President Nelson said,

As we diligently seek to have charity and virtue fill our lives, our confidence in approaching God will increase. I invite you to take intentional steps to grow in your confidence before the Lord. Then, as we go to our Heavenly Father with increasing confidence, we will be filled with more joy, and your faith in Jesus Christ will increase. We will begin to experience spiritual power that exceeds our greatest hopes.

As I read the talks from this October 2014 Women's Session, two of them helped me understand that concept better. One was President Uchtdorf's, where he said:

The promised blessings of God to the faithful are glorious and inspiring. Among them are “thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths.” And it takes more than a spiritual birth certificate or a “Child of God Membership Card” to qualify for these incomprehensible blessings.

But how do we attain them?

The Savior has answered this question in our time:

“Except ye abide my law ye cannot attain to this glory.

“For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation. …

“… Receive ye, therefore, my law.”

For this reason, we speak of walking the path of discipleship.

We speak of obedience to God’s commandments.

We speak of living the gospel joyfully, with all our heart, might, mind, and soul.

At first glance this seems a little confidence-undermining, if anything: is he saying just being a child of God isn't enough? That's just what we fear, isn't it? We fear that we aren't good or important or chosen enough to receive what God has? But actually Elder Uchtdorf doesn't say anything about "good enough." He says discipleship, obedience, living the gospel. Just like President Nelson's emphasis on virtue, his emphasis here is on what we can do to become like God, and obedience is one of the things we can actually most easily do! Because obedience includes repentance, all it really takes is our own desire and willingness, and then making one effort, one step at a time, according to our best understanding.

But then this, from Sister Jean A. Stevens, made the last connection for me:

Covenants with God help us to know who we really are. They connect us to Him in a personal way through which we come to feel our value in His sight and our place in His kingdom.

Something about this explanation works for me. I know covenants give us power, but in this way they also give us confidence. Keeping covenants helps us (correctly) feel that our place is with God! It's almost like covenants prove to us, when we would otherwise (also maybe correctly) feel those "I can't possibly be good or important or chosen enough" feelings, that we DO belong with our Heavenly Father. We belong there because we've chosen to get on the path to get there! Sort of like you wouldn't be afraid to ask your piano teacher for help learning a piano piece. That fact that you couldn't already play the piece wouldn't stop you; that's the whole reason you're there. Your clumsiness and your ignorance as you first try to fumble through the notes wouldn't make you think, "Oh, I shouldn't be here. I can't play for my piano teacher sounding like this!" You'd know that you already signed up for lessons. Your teacher is sitting there next to you for the entire purpose of helping you be a better pianist. Why not show him exactly where you are and ask him the questions that will help you improve?

Our covenants with God can work the same way. "Of course I should ask God my questions, I'm going to him for 'godhood lessons.' Why wouldn't He want to hear from me? We're already in a contractual relationship where I asked Him to help me and He agreed He always would!" Obviously He is a Father too, and loves us always, but as Elder Uchtdorf said that fact alone doesn't necessarily reassure us. It's our virtue (as President Nelson says) and our discipleship (as President Uchtdorf says) and our covenants that prove (to us ourselves!) that we not only can approach God for help, but we definitely have the right to!