The Guide to the LDS Scriptures defines CONSECRATE as follows...
To dedicate, to make holy, or to become righteous. The law of
consecration is a divine principle whereby men and women voluntarily dedicate
their time, talents, and material wealth to the establishment and building up
of God’s kingdom.
I believe that the Lord asks us for even more.
He wants us to share with him our joys and grief. He not only wants us to share our temporal blessings, our time, etc.- He wants our whole hearts. When I give the Lord all my heartaches, worries, concerns and then ask Him to give back what my part is, this is a type of
consecration. I have found that as I give Him my stress and fears about my life
situation, He lets me know what He would have me do, what my part is. I’m so grateful to Him. He is such a kind, loving, Father.
I believe that the Law of Consecration is part of the
Atonement of Christ. As we give Him all
the good we can do and give Him all our sins, He takes our troubles, He washes away our sins
and one day we will be given all that He has.
My beloved friend, Amber Sorensen shared this thought,
“The Law of Consecration is still in effect
because everything belongs to the Lord.
When we willing give Him all that we have, he can give us back what we
need and more and makes up the difference if we’re short."
The Parable of the Bicycle by Stephen G. Robinson illustrates this point beautifully...
I was sitting in a chair reading. My daughter, Sarah, who was seven years old at the time, came in and said, “Dad, can I have a bike? I’m the only kid on the block who doesn’t have one.”
Well, I didn’t have the money then for a bike, so I stalled her. I said, “Sure, Sarah.”
She said, “How? When?”
I said, “You save all your pennies, and soon you’ll have enough for a bike.” And she went away.
A couple of weeks later I was sitting in the same chair when I heard a “clink, clink” in Sarah’s bedroom. I asked, “Sarah, what are you doing?”
She came to me with a little jar, a slit cut in the lid, and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She said, “You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I’d have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I’ve saved every single one of them.”
My heart melted. My daughter was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn’t actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies, she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. I said, “Let’s go look at bikes.”
We went to every store in town. Finally we found it—the perfect bicycle. She was thrilled. Then she saw the price tag, and her face fell. She started to cry. “Oh, Dad, I’ll never have enough for a bicycle!”
So I said, “Sarah, how much do you have?”
She answered, “Sixty-one cents.”
“I’ll tell you what. You give me everything you’ve got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours.” Then I drove home very slowly because she insisted on riding the bike home.
As I drove beside her, I thought of the atonement of Christ. We all desperately want the celestial kingdom. We want to be with our Father in Heaven. But no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point all of us must realize, “I can’t do this by myself. I need help.” Then it is that the Savior says, in effect, All right, you’re not perfect. But what can you do? Give me all you have, and I’ll do the rest.
He still requires our best effort. We must keep trying. But the good news is that having done all we can, it is enough. We may not be personally perfect yet, but because of our covenant with the Savior, we can rely on his perfection, and his perfection will get us through.
To read the full article, go to https://www.lds.org/ensign/1992/04/believing-christ?lang=eng
Hillary Weeks' song "Give Ye to Me" is one of my
favorite songs that also explains this concept.
