Drawing Near to the Lord

Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (D & C 88:63)

It is up to us to draw near unto the Lord. That is because we have agency. The Lord is always there for us, waiting patiently with open arms, but He will not force us to Him. He will, however, respond, as evidenced by the phrase, "...and I will draw near unto you."

In the above quoted scripture, notice the verbs: draw, seek, ask, knock. These are actions we must take. We must actively work toward the Lord and we must do so diligently. A one time effort or a half-hearted effort will not do, if we want to find the peace and joy and truth that await us.

This is something I have been working on all my life. Sometimes I am diligent and sometimes I am not, but it is always my choice as to whether I put in the consistent effort to read scripture, pray, attend meetings, and read the words of our modern day prophets. I can tell the difference. When I put in the effort, I feel close to the Lord. When I do not, I feel alienated from Him. He is not the one who moved.

The verse above also implies that we must listen for what the Lord has to tell us. That means learning how He talks to us. We can ask Him in our prayers to teach us how He talks to us. We can notice in scripture and in the words of the prophets how He has communicated with others, to give us ideas of how He might communicate with us. We can make time in our prayers to be still and quiet, holding the thought of the Lord in our minds, listening for His response.

Learning to draw near to the Lord is one of the most important and most basic things we can do as we seek to work out our salvation.