Jesus Christ said,
Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. (3 Nephi 27:13)
Paraphrasing that scripture, I heard a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons, paraphrase the Savior, saying,
I came into the world, because my Father asked it of Me.
This struck me hard. Jesus Christ, knowing what He was facing and His ultimate end, came into the world that He might pay for all the sins, sorrows and illnesses of every one of Heavenly Father‘s children (the Atonement), suffering unimaginable pain and grief in the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as break the bands of death (Resurrection) after being cruelly and inhumanely crucified, freeing all mankind from the grave. He knew, in theory, what He was facing.
And yet, when He was chosen by the Father in that Grand Council in heaven, He accepted this mission because of His deep and abiding love for Heavenly Father, and for each of us.
And so can we look over our lives, knowing the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been fully restored in these modern time through the Prophet of the Restoration. We were sent to live here in mortality, learn, grow and return in glory to our Father in Heaven. We are here, because He asked it of us.
While Jesus Christ is our Savior, Lord and Redeemer, we are foot soldiers in the army of the Lord. We have been asked to stand tall, bearing witness to the truthfulness of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Jehovah of the Old Testament and Messiah of the New Testament. We have been asked to bear witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, a history of Lehi and his family and their journey to the world, Jesus Christ’s subsequent visit to a decimated America and the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve been asked to bear witness of the fact that the Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ. We have been asked to live our lives according to the practices, principles and precepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And why have we been asked and proceeded to do this?
Because our Lord asked this of us, as did His Father.
As the trials and tribulations of life grow heavier, I have paused amongst the chaos of preparing for my husband’s kidney transplant on the 15th of April, to remember . . . I am here, because He asked it of me.
Our great Exemplar, Jesus Christ, has shown by every step He made, every word He spoke and every life He touched how we are to behave in every aspect of our lives. And this is another such example . . . we will do, because He asked it of us.
