“We believe in God the eternal Father, and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” Articles of Faith 1:1  Thus exists the God head for LDS types.  For those who adhere to the Trinity this will still apply.  I have a theory.  Tell me what you think.

So when I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost it always makes me think of Faith Hope and Charity.  I guess because these three principles seem to go together to shape the beliefs of Christians around the world and are so often referenced together.  I always put them as Charity being the Father for “the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13) and after all,  God is Love.  Faith is the Son for He is the center of our Faith and it is through our Faith in Him that salvation is wrought.  Of course that leaves Hope as the Holy Ghost for it is His whisper and presence that brings us Hope in the darkness.

Somehow, for me this always brings me to the opposition.  Yin and yang, up and down, push and pull, what do we have to overcome to get what we desire?  First of all, there is a God and He loves you.  There is also the devil and he doesn’t.

People get confused about the devil I think.  He is usually underestimated, often derided and simply put, not taken nearly serious enough.  He wants one thing, “that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2Nephi 2:27) and he is really, really good at making that happen!

He goes about this in what appears to be different ways.  He has his two primary but polar lies.  The 1st is most common I think.  He wants to convince you that you are worthless.  He wants you to think of yourself as dross, as insignificant, as unworthy of the love of that God who gave you life.  This is ridiculous!  You are Gods child.  You are NEVER worthless to Him!  But sometimes in the cold and dark places in our lives we believe this lie.

The 2nd lie is my personal favorite.  I find it facinating that it comes from the same source.  It shouldn’t surprise me since he is the father of lies but it does.  In this lie he tells us that we are super stars.  That seems nice but he wants to seperate us from each other.  He wants us to put ourselves above our brothers and sisters. We don’t need God or anyone cause we are just that much better than everyone else.  Think rameumptom from Alma 31:8-18.  Stand on that podium and be grateful for your superiority.  It’s alot more fun than the other one…at least at first, but it is equally ridiculous.  We are all God’s children.  No one is inherently better than anyone else.

Whichever lie we buy isolates us from each other and seperates us from Joy.  For “it is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18)  This makes the devil laugh.

I guess my point is (and I have one I promise😊) the devil is real, he has power, and we would be well advised to proceed with caution.  The trick is recognizing his work.  For me I have narrowed it down to one simple factor.  The devil is fear.  

I know what you’re thinking; that’s too simple, he has been working his machinations throughout time, he has lots of grand schemes, what about his lies?  What does fear have to do with those?  (Wow you have alot of questions (;) But I say “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”  (Alma 37:6).  It doesn’t say good.  The opposition does great works too in much the same way our Father does.  Small and simple things.  He sometimes disguises it as pride or hurt or a million other little things but, just like it isnt the scraped knee that makes us stop trying but the fear of another one.  Just like he makes us afraid to face the day in our worthless state.  Just like he makes us afraid to be dependent or vulnerable to others.  When it comes down to it, he is using one simple tool and that is fear.  A life ruled by fear is a terrible place.

God is our Father and he wants us to be happy.  My favorite verse has always been 2Nephi 2:25 “Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have Joy”  This is Gods will for his children (that’s you.  Not his other children.  You!) He wants us to learn to be happy.  Faith Hope and Charity.  That’s the key and their opposite has been and always will be fear.

With Faith this claim is obvious.  Faith has always been the opposite of fear.  When Peter walked upon the water and focused on his Savior he was fine but when fear crept in as he looked upon the stormy sea he began to doubt and his Faith failed him.  Charity is a little different.  Charity is the pure Love of Christ and the opposite of Love is often thought to be apathy.  Some would say hate (which is born of fear anyway) but I think apathy would be more accurate.  For love is concern and caring, sacrifice and giving.  Apathy is indifferent callous selfish and would not be moved to help in the least.  Why would anyone choose to feel that?  Because they are afraid.  They fear hurt and vulnerability and thus close themselves off.  No good thing has ever been born of a fear based choice.  George Addair said “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”  And “Perfect Love casteth out fear” 1 John 4:18  Get the happiness you deserve.  Courage is not the absence of fear.  Anything worth having is gonna be hard to get.  So get out there!  Be brave and claim the Joy God wishes to give you!

This brings us to Hope.  To quote Jim Butcher “Like Love, Hope is one of those ridiculously disproportional words that by all rights, should be longer”  Hope is so beautiful it brightens the soul.  It is the first fruit of Faith and the light that shines when all others have gone out.  Its opposite has been called despair, but what is despair but fear that all is lost, that things will never get better?  Let hope shine!  Never give into the fear.  The pit of despair is bottomless.  If we let fear rule us we will never get out of it. Hope is also the opposite of fear.

So we have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.  These three,  but there’s only one devil and I think that’s enough.

 

P.s. I present this as a simple argument and I believe it is but we are all different people and my ideas are certainly not the end all be all.  This is my philosophy and it may not work for everyone if it works for you, great.  If it doesnt also great, either way I’d love to hear from you 🙂