The Right Heart

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was eighteen years old. Only months away from graduating from high school, I was still considered part of the "youth" of the church. (Though, naturally, I considered myself far too experienced for such a title.) It was under this label that I was called upon to speak in our Stake Conference meeting, much to my shock and intimidation. Whatever I thought of my maturity, I did not think it was sufficient that I was qualified to preach to a crowd of several hundred people.

Regardless, I accepted the call. I spoke. And it went pretty well, as far as I remember. Well enough that my mother requested a copy of my talk. "I'll get right on that," I told her, as I frequently do.

And I forgot, as I frequently do. Fortunately for my mother, my writings are so close to my heart that I scarcely throw anything away - I found the talk in one of my old notebooks today. I figured it was time to live up to my word.

"What is the purpose of coming to church? Is it to make new friends; to create solidarity as a community; to practice our singing; to get a few hours’ nap; to let someone else take care of the kids for a while?

No. The purpose of coming to church is to worship; to praise God and renew our covenants with Him; to learn His ways and hear His word and recommit to live our lives in such a way that we can return to live with Him again.

This – the true purpose, the real reason we are all here – cannot be fulfilled without the Holy Ghost. We’re all human, subject to human frailties. Even the best of us cannot learn one iota of eternal truth without the power of the Spirit. That is why it is so vital that we invite the Spirit into our meetings.

And how do we invite the Spirit into our meetings? Other talks will discuss the logistics: be early; pray for the Spirit’s influence; listen to the prelude music; take notes; etc. But I don’t have time for that. I only have five minutes. So I’m just going to talk about one thing – something that is so obvious, but sadly sometimes gets overlooked.

My seminary teacher, Brother Laing, had a little chant that we used to recite every few days. It went like this: “If I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right things, with the right heart then I will receive Christ.” For our purposes, the “right place” is church. (Congratulations. You all pass.) The “right time” is Sunday. The “right things,” those would be those logistics I mentioned. But what about “the right heart”? Having the right heart is the hardest part of the list, but it may also be the most important.

There are two things to consider about the heart. The first is that your heart is the origin of your motivations. In order to receive the Spirit’s guiding influence, you not only have to come to church, but you have to come for the right reason. Are you just here because it’s routine? Are you here because you were dragged out of bed? Are you here because you’re worried what people would think of you if you didn’t come? Or are you here because you want to keep the commandments, because you want to strengthen your testimony, simply because you love the Lord?

President Hartman Rector Jr. said, “I believe this is the greatest lesson that can be learned by the youth of Zion – to do the right thing because you love the Lord. It is so vitally important that, I feel, if you do anything in righteousness for any other reason than you love the Lord, you are wrong – at least you are on very shaky ground.

“And, somewhere your reasons for acting in righteousness will not be strong enough to see you through. You will give way to expediency, or peer group pressure, or honor, or fame, or applause, or the thrill of the moment, or some other worldly reason. Unless your motives are built upon the firm foundation of love of the Lord, you will not be able to stand.”

Whether you have the right motives is important in life, but it is also important in gaining the companionship of the Spirit. Christ said of the Spirit: “Wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise (D&C 88:3).” If our motivations are righteous, the Spirit may dwell within us. But if our motivations become less admirable we allow our hearts to harden, and the Spirit can no longer abide there.

Another thing to consider about the heart is that it is a muscle, and as a muscle it has duties and actions to perform. Physically, it pumps your blood. But spiritually there is a lot more your heart can do. A few scriptural examples:

“my heart pondereth…”

“I cried with my whole heart…”

“Apply thine heart unto instruction…”

“Rejoice, O my heart…”

“Seek Him with the whole heart…”

“The heart of the righteous studieth to answer…”

“your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony…”

“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…”

I think we underestimate what it is our hearts can do. Our hearts can ponder, they can seek, they can pray, they can learn. While we sit in sacrament meeting it is important that our minds stay active, but it is infinitely more important that our hearts stay active. Stop worrying about how your dress looks or what you’re going to do when you get home. Turn off your head for a minute and put your heart to work. Work to learn, work to grow, work to hear. I think when we watch the video of our life on the big screen in Heaven we will be surprised how often the Spirit was in the meeting, but our hearts were asleep, and did not notice.

When we can align our hearts with the heart of the Savior, the Spirit will not only abide in us, he will abound in us. The secret to having the Spirit in our meetings may not be to change what we are doing externally but what we are doing internally. The importance of this principle was stressed in D&C 64, verse 22:

“For I, the Lord, require the hearts of the children of men…”

I bear testimony of this eternal principle: the disposition of our hearts will greatly influence our ability to hear the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. If we will keep our hearts actively involved during our church meetings, then our purpose in attending will be accomplished: sincere worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I leave these things with you in His sacred name. Amen."