Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord - November 16, 2014

Tina D. presented thoughts from Chapter 26: Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord from the Joseph Fielding Smith manual.

President Joseph Fielding Smith once told a group of Latter-day Saints that he was “praying for the end of the world.” He said, “If it came tomorrow I would be glad.” In response to that declaration, a woman spoke out, loudly enough for others to hear. “Oh, I hope not,” she said.

Sharing this experience some time later, President Smith taught:

“Do you not want the end of the world to come?

“Most people have the wrong idea of what is meant by the end of the world. …

“… When Christ comes there will be an end to the world. … There will not be any war, any turmoil, envying, lying; there will be no wickedness. Men will learn then to love the Lord and keep His commandments, and if they don’t they will not stay here. That’s the end of the world, and that is what the Savior prayed for when His disciples came to Him and said, ‘Teach us to pray.’ What did He do? He taught them, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ [See Luke 11:1–2.]

“That’s what I’m praying for. The Lord was praying for the end of the world, and so am I.”  Chapter 26: Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord

This perspective can be very different than that of the world.

• How does this account from the life of Joseph Fielding Smith influence your feelings about the end of the world?

A song about preparing for the Saviors coming

“As thou knowest, O our God, we are living in the last days when the signs of the times are being shown forth; when thou art hastening thy work in its time; and when we have already heard the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his paths straight …

“O, our Father, we long for the day when the Prince of Peace shall come, when the earth shall rest and righteousness be found again upon her face; and it is our prayer, spoken out of humble and contrite hearts, that we shall abide the day and be found worthy to live with him whom thou hast appointed to stand as King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom be glory and honor and power and might both now and forever.” (from the dedicatory prayer of the Ogden Utah Temple) Chapter 26: Preparing for the Coming of Our Lord

• How can the prophecies help us prepare for the coming of the Lord?

Elder Oaks teaches the importance of preparing for the Second Coming

The Savior's parable of the fig tree (Doctrine and Covenants 45:16-39) teaches that we need not be frightened or troubled by the calamities that will come in the last days.

Be Not Troubled video about the parable of the fig tree