There was a man named Lee that felt he should go into his business office one day and ask a friend to attend church that Easter Sunday.
He walked to his friend’s desk and said, “you know, Easter is coming up. Do you want to come to church with me?”
His friend said, “you know I am an atheist.”
Lee testified of Christ’s resurrection, but his friend did not listen.
Disheartened and confused, Lee left.
A decade later, he was in church and a man came up to him and thanked him.
Lee didn’t know the man. The man explained, “I was in the business office of the newspaper, and I was on my hands and knees on the floor behind a desk working on some tile on the floor and you walked in the door.
“You invited a guy to church and testified of Christ and my heart started beating fast. When you left, I called my wife. I said, “We’re gonna go to church on Easter”.
“We came to church that Easter and have kept coming since.”
I was reminded of this story as I read Isaiah’s call to prophecy. The Lord asks him to “make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they understand with their heart and be converted and be healed.”
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At first glance, this seems like a very confusing passage—why would God ask Isaiah to do such a thing? Doesn’t He love his people?
But, as seen from the verse above, the people’s eyes/ears were already shut, and God respects agency. He also plays the long game.
Yes, his words might have made his people shut their eyes and ears more, but they have helped millions to open them.
Isaiah is quoted 600 times in the Book of Mormon, 137 times in the NT, and 106 times in D&C. Christ Himself quoted him and told us to search them.
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Truly, God’s ways are not our ways.
Instead of looking at isolated principles to prove if God is loving,
What if we started with “I know God is loving, so how does this principle fit into that love?”
As Dallin H. Oaks said, “there is so much we do not know that our only sure reliance is to trust in the Lord and His love for His children.”
Like Isaiah, we might have moments where we wonder, “Lord, how long?” (2 Ne 16:11)
But as we follow Him, we will be able to feel His love and peace.
Art @celestecclark
Beginning story by @lee_strobel
Guest Author
dyejo
