The Animal in Us Upon the Alter

 "Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on  the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the alter and letting it be consumed!"

-Neal A. Maxwell

We have to have a stressful life for it t be faith-filled

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once taught: “One’s life … cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.

“… How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ‘Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!’”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, 88.

“Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds”

April 1991 general conference

Dandelion Offering

"Sometimes with smudges on our cheeks, dirt on our hands, and shoes untied, stammeringly but smilingly we present God with a dandelion - as if it were an orchid or a rose! If for now the dandelion is the best we have to offer, He receives it, knowing what we may later place on the alter."

Neal A. Maxwell

Inn Keeper

"Each of us is an inn keeper who decides if there is room for Jesus."

Neal A. Maxwell

Rudeness is Contagious

"Love, patience, and meekness can be just as contagious as rudeness and crudeness."

Neal A. Maxwell

Praised for Your Stamina

"Latter Day saints need to remember that those who live now are being called upon to work out our salvation in a special time in intense and immense challenges. (During) the last portion of The Dispensation of the Fullness of Time... great tribulation and temptation will occur. The elect will almost be deceived and unrighteous people will be living much as they were in the last days of Noah. Therefore, though we have rightly applauded ancestors for their spiritual achievements and we don't and must not discount them now, those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing. The special spirits who have been reserved to live in this The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times will one day be praised for their stamina by those who pulled handcarts."

Neal A. Maxwell, Notwithstanding my Weaknesses, p. 18

The Only Thing You Can Give God

“… As you submit your wills to God, you are giving Him the only thing you
can actually give Him that is really yours to give. Don’t wait too long to find the altar or to begin to place the gift of your wills upon it! No need to wait for a receipt; the Lord has His own special ways of acknowledging.”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Remember How Merciful the Lord Hath Been,”Ensign, May 2004, 44, 46.

the animal in us

 “Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness,” Ensign, May 1995, 68; emphasis added.

Things Don't Happen When You Think They Should

Some young adults pray and long for a temple marriage but feel they have no power to obtain one. Perhaps the counsel in Doctrine and Covenants 58:3–4 applies:

“Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

“For after much tribulation come the blessings.”

Sometimes tribulation simply means that things don’t happen when you think they should. In the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, you must exercise “faith in the Lord’s timing for [you] personally, not just in His overall plans and purposes.”3 This doesn’t mean you simply stand by. As the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote to the Saints, “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17).

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Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University

Tempations

 “If we entertain temptations, soon they begin entertaining us!”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Overcome . . . Even as I Also Overcome,” Ensign, May 1987, 71. 

Pay the Costs

 “The greatest happiness in God’s generous plan is finally reserved for those who are willing to stretch and to pay the costs of journeying to His regal realm. Brothers and sisters, “come, let us anew [this] journey pursue.” 

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Individual Stumbling Blocks

 “How could we be entrusted with His “all” until our wills are much more like His? …let us inquire about our individual stumbling blocks, “Lord, is it this?”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Very Essence of the Atonement

 “…President [Gordon B.] Hinckley …stressed our being a covenant people, emphasizing the covenants of the sacrament, tithing, and the temple, citing sacrifice as the “very essence of the Atonement.” 

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Ultimate Submission

 “In striving for ultimate submission, our wills constitute all we really have to give God anyway. The usual gifts and their derivatives we give to Him could be stamped justifiable “Return to Sender,” with a capital S. Even when God receives this one gift in return, the fully faithful will receive “all that [He] hath” (D&C 84:38). What an exchange rate!”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Those We Admire

 “As you and I develop additional love, patience, and meekness, the more we have to give God and humanity. Moreover, no one else is placed exactly as we are in our opportune human orbits.

“Granted, the stepping-stones take us into new territory which we may be very reluctant to explore. Hence, the successful users of the stepping-stones are powerful motivators for the rest of us. We usually pay more attention to those we quietly admire.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Be Meek to Learn God's Ways

 “Since knees bend often bend long before minds, holding back this “part” deprives God’s work of some of mankind’s very best intellects. Far better to be meek like Moses, who learned things he “never had supposed” (Moses 1:10). Yet, sadly, brothers and sisters, in the subtle interplay of agency and identity, there is so much hesitation. The surrender of the mind is actually a victory, because it then introduces us to God’s stretching and “higher” ways! (Isaiah 55:9).”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Pleasing Those Higher than Us

“We can also be deflected if we are too anxious to please those who are ascendant in our professional and avocational niches. Pleasing “other gods” instead of the real God still violates the first commandment (Exodus 20:3)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,” General Conference in April 2002.

Trust God

 “The issue for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. Is we can truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans unfold as He thinks best?”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926-2004), Even As I Am (1982), 93. 

God Knows Our Individual Lives

 “The same god that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well.”

Neal A. Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake (1974), 86.

Nurturing Our Faith

“Serving, studying, praying, and worshiping are four fundamentals in perfecting ‘that which is lacking in [our] faith.’ (1 Thes. 3:10). If we cease nurturing our faith in any of these four specific ways, we are vulnerable. . . .

“In a hardening world, the Lord can pierce our consciousness by using ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.’ (Eph. 6:17); see also Jarom 1:12.) However, hearing must be ‘mixed with faith’ (Heb 4:2) and with Christian service, as we have heard again and again.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926-2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, 88.