How to Prepare for the Big Test

What happens when we die?  Are we ready to meet God?  How will we feel?  What is our purpose in life?  How can we be safe?  Change is hard sometimes, especially if we aren't familiar with what will happen.  A fear many people have is death.  How can we be prepared?  What can we do?

In the Book of Mormon there are a lot of wars; many people died.  One verse in the Book of Mormon reads, "And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one."(Alma 3: 26).  It is interesting what it said, the people who died reaped the eternal reward according to what they did while alive.  If we desire good, we must do good.

Our purpose for coming to earth was to get a body and be tested.  We must prepare to meet God today!  "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."(Alma 34: 32).  If we want to live with God again, we must live that way today.  "Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."(Alma 41: 10).

We must acknowledge our faults and change.  We must become a different person.  We all sin, that is why Christ was sent.  "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you."(Alma 5: 33).  We can and must change now.

I have a dear friend that taught me this saying that I like.  It shows what we must do to change ourselves.  It shows how little things, starting with thoughts, can lead us to our eternal destination.  It is a principal of sowing and reaping.  In other words, planting and harvesting.

Sow a thought     Reap a action
Sow a action     Reap a habit
Sow a habit     Reap a character
Sow a character     Reap a eternal destination

I know that what we do today is important.  "Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."(Alma 34: 34).  I know that God is merciful.  Christ came and died so we can live.  I also know that if we don't do our best in this life, then we must accept the consequences!  I testify that we can all return to God if we do what He has asked of us!

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