Have you been changed by grace?

[zil2]

That question comes from a July 2011 BYU devotional, "His Grace Is Sufficient", by Brad Wilcox.  I think it's a really good question.  I wish child-me had understood this concept of letting (or pleading for) the Lord (to) change your heart.  I was 40-something before I had an experience wherein I knew, beyond any doubt, that the Lord had changed my heart.  It took about 2 years of constant prayer.  (Maybe he'd done so at other times without me knowing it, but that was the first time I was aware of it.)  I consider that pretty pathetic and my younger self obscenely clueless.  Anywho...

Here's a quote from the devotional:

Quote

I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to earn your way to heaven.”

I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.”

They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?”

I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!”

Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: “Have you been changed by grace?” They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but also what He has saved us for.

"learning heaven", "why the debt existed in the first place".  Man.  I should just start watching every BYU devotional ever.  There are so many gems in there.  I recommend this one.

[rcthompson88]

I wish this was a perspective I wish I understood better as a youth, and I now try to help my daughters understand grace this way. We are not filling the gap, we are not doing our best and hoping Christ will fill in the rest, we are saved. Because of that salvation, we are compelled to become better, to become more Christlike, to turn away from sin and toward God. Not because those actions buy any part of salvation, but because they are an outward manifestation of our gratitude for Christ's saving grace, and because they are helping us become the beings we need to be if we want to be like our Father.

I think of it now like like looking at the prophet. Many of us see the work the prophet does, and we see the Spiritual connection he has, and we say that we could never get to that point and we would never want to be called to be a prophet because we would not be able to live up to that calling. Our eternal progression may be something similar. After this life we are going to have a better understanding of God, of Christ, of the divine attributes they have, of the hard work and Spiritual connection it takes to fulfill their callings. Many are going to say that they could never do that, and are going to be satisfied with a state of Glory that allows others to manage the presiding authorities. I believe the Exalted are the ones that are going to realize that they can do what the Father does, but just not yet, and have the habits and temperaments developed in their mortal life to identify spiritual short comings and make the changes necessary to learn, grow, and expand their capacity until they do get to that point.

[Anddenex]

Yes, I'm thankful for the "grace" I have received that I know I have received that has changed my heart and mind. I also agree, I wish my younger self would have understood the principle of Grace before my mission, after my mission, and a couple years after my mission before I realized it.

This discussion from Brad Wilcox is a good discussion with good insight.  My first recognition of "grace" occurred when I finally understood Abraham 1:2. The only way this is possible is through grace, and without God's grace we could not grow in knowledge nor in righteousness.