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missionlec2 (Elder Corbridge ** )

Elder and Sister Lawrence E. Corbridge of the Seventy

Tuesday devotional,  June 11, 2019


Sister Corbridge:

  • Sister Julie Beck of the general Relief Society presidency stayed with the Corbridges while they were serving in Santiago, Chile.  Sister Beck was gifted in speaking Spanish at the pulpit.  Sister Corbridge was struggling with her own abilities using the Spanish language, and prayed fervently about why some are blessed with a greater gift of tongues, and some are not, including herself.  Not long thereafter, Sister Corbridge had a dream in which there were many small, colorful houses in a cloud.  She was looking down on all the houses, and saw that there were no furnishings in any of them.  The only thing in the each house was a phone.  The foundation of each house was completely solid.  Sister Corbridge, in thinking about this dream, was inspired to understand that she could have the gift of communication with Heavenly Father even if she was not as talented or gifted or grand as other people.  Rather our house is grand or simple, large or small, we still have a solid foundation in Christ.

Elder Corbridge:

  • All of us sometimes question if we are good enough or adequate enough to measure up to God’s standards.  If you feel that way now, welcome to the club!  We all fall short of divine expectations — it is part of the process.  Ether 12:27 tells us that all have weakness.  Because of our weakness, we learn to lean on Heavenly Father.
  • The Lord gives men weakness so that they will be humble and become strong through Him.
  • Can I tell you about feeling inadequate?  I went into the General Authority lunchroom at Church Headquarters last week, and someone called out to me, saying, “Larry, come and sit by me.”  I looked around and it was President Nelson calling to me.  As I put my lunch tray down on the table, I jostled my tray and spilled it all over the table!
  • President Nelson asked me to tell all of you missionaries how grateful we, as General Authorities, are for you, and he would want you to express gratitude to your wonderful parents for how they have raised you, so that you are here as full-time missionaries.
  • There are 6 possible routes to connect 3 destinations.  There are 24 possible routes to connect 4 destinations, 120 for 5, over 3 million for 10, over 2 trillion for 20, etc.  We need to narrow our focus here in this life in order to be successful.
  • In this life we have three options:
    • Drift from place to place
    • Go a lot of places in a lot of ways
    • Go one place in one way
  • The most successful people are those who have a very narrow focus.
  • Bill Gates attributed his great success in business to his ability to focus on just a very few important things.
  • The Law of Opportunity is this: you do something important at the exclusion of everything else.
  • Focus on something that makes everything else easier, better, and timeless.
  • What should that one thing be?  Consider these scriptural injunctions:
    • All that thou doest should be in the name of the Son
    • Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly (thus the Holy Ghost will be your constant companion)
    • Always remember Him (and you will thus have His spirit to always be with you)
    • Pray always in His name (and He will pour out His spirit upon you)
    • Treasure up My words (and you will have eternal life)
  • The greatest thing to focus on in this life and to have as our life purpose should be to be endowed with heavenly power.  See 3 Nephi 27:27.  Our life focus should be Jesus Christ.
  • In April of 2001, President Nelson said, “There is nothing easy about becoming powerful disciples…”
  • What is it that drives you?  What do you think about the most?
  • He asked all the missionaries in the MTC to respond to the following question — “What do you want?”  Only ONE missionary responded by saying that he wanted to fulfill his missionary purpose and invite others to come unto Christ.
  • As you leave this devotional tonight, my prayer is that each of you will want your purpose to be the missionary purpose.
  • NUMBER ONE: Understand your purpose.  Most missionaries are not focused on baptism.  If you were, you would talk to everyone.  It would be all that you think about, all that you do.  Study over and over the various points of your purpose.
  • NUMBER TWO: Have a burning desire to fulfill your purpose.  The Lord cannot help you totally unless you give yourself to Him.  You cannot enjoy a state of happiness if you do not want to do the things that lead to happiness, even if you are going through the motions.
  • NUMBER THREE: Choose your focus.  Decide how the missionary purpose is YOUR purpose.  Want it and then live it!  You have to be a disciple of Christ first before you can help other become His disciples.  Apply the missionary purpose first to yourself and then help others apply it in their lives.
  • NUMBER FOUR: Teach your purpose.  Hyrum Smith said, “Preach the first principles of the gospel over and over.”  Pray that your focus will be narrow and that you will maintain that focus throughout your life.
  • Sin separates us not only from God, but also from the POWER of God.  Through repentance, we can again access God’s power.

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