"And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Today, seems to be the day I must focus on conversion. I can't tell you how many conversations I have had on it today. In this verse I noticed the word "converted" straight away.
I've always focused on the little child part. That I needed to become one. Now I realize what I actually need to be is converted. Then by my fruits you see me as a little child. The footnote takes me to this scripture.
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
(Mosiah 3:19)
What beautiful characteristics, and none of them are possible unless you overcome the natural man tendencies and become truly converted.
This is what the Bible Dictionary says on Conversion:
"Denotes changing one’s views, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God (Acts 3:19). If followed by continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism in water for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, conversion will become complete and will change a natural man into a sanctified, born again, purified person—a new creature in Christ Jesus (see 2 Cor. 5:17). Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing (see Luke 22:32; D&C 112:12–13). To labor for the conversion of one’s self and others is a noble task, as in Ps. 51:13; Dan. 12:3; James 5:19–20; Alma 26; D&C 18:15–16.
I'm beginning to have new eyes on the natural man, conversion, and purpose in trials. I am working towards putting the oil of conversion into my vessel, to feed my lamp of testimony, like five of the ten virgins did. Elder David A. Bednar referred to this in his Oct 2012 General Conference talk "Converted unto the Lord".
Day 1522
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