Aren't We All Beggars?

I've got to admit that I just have too many plates spinning to really blog today.  With a new baby and a house to move in a few weeks, and a car in the shop...we are living out of boxes, and trying to make do. 

Still I can't pass up an opportunity to say that the Lord has really helped me out during the last week.

It's interesting how alive one feels when we are really high or really low or really worried or really in need of assistance.  And what a difference the tone of our prayers take on when we are in these situations.

Last week, I was praying for Heavenly Father to help me out with something.  It was an urgent prayer.  It was a forceful prayer that then turned into a "Please, please, please, please, I'll do anything" prayer.

As I pondered my situation, the words of this scripture came into my mind, "For behold, are we not all beggars?  Do we not all depend on the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?"

Touche, I thought.  I too am a beggar.

Of course, what I was praying for was not riches, but it might well have been, because that was how much I cared about the outcome.

I continued to pray throughout the afternoon and petitioned the Lord to grant my desire.

I look up the scripture above and continued to read a verse prior to it, "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish."

I thought, "Message received."  And I earnestly promised to do a better job of giving to others in need...out of our abundance.

Shortly after that, my prayer was answered...and in a good way.  I was so happy and so relieved and so thankful.

I wanted to be sure to thank the Lord with prayers of the same urgency as I did while asking for his help, but try as I might I wasn't able to find the right words.

Then the spirit brought back my own words to me.  "If you desire more spiritual knowledge, write it down."  I had been telling my girls in Young Women's this during our last two lessons...that they can receive further inspiration as they write in their journals.

Having little time, I grabbed my journal and jotted down the impressions that I felt.  Then I glanced back at my computer screen which contained the verses of scripture that I had been reading.  

It said, "And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins.  And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain?  Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

"And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives, and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another."

I realized then, that the "substance" that the Lord was asking me to impart was forgiveness of others.    That was the message that I was to hear loud and clear.  A message that I might not have fully comprehended had I not written it down.

I am thankful for this experience, and as I round out writing this my 999th blog post, I am thankful for the many times over the last four and a half years that writing and pondering have brought me awareness of the truth that God has waiting for me.