Question: Who is God? What is He like and what are some of His characteristics?
- What similarities do Genie and God have?
1) They Expect Us To Act
"Merchant: Do not be fooled by [the lamp's] commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what outside, but what is inside that counts. This is no ordinary lamp. It once changed the course of a young man's life. A young man, who, like this lamp, was more than what he seemed. A diamond in the rough."
Once Aladdin retrieved the lamp that he was sent in to recover for Jafar, it seemed like any other lamp until he rubbed it and out came Genie who offered him three wishes. Had Aladdin, or anyone that came across it, never rubbed the lamp, they never would access that wonderful power and intrigue of having three wishes granted. For Aladdin, rubbing the lamp saved his life as Genie helped him escape from the Cave of Wonders that had caved in.
In the same way that Aladdin approached Genie we too must approach God. It requires action! For Aladdin to find Genie, he had to rub his lamp. For us to find God, we too must do the things that will lead us to God like praying, reading the scriptures, going to church, serving other people, and following the commandments. When we begin doing these things that God institued, our faith begins to increase because we begin to feel and know that we are doing what's right. It will change the course of our lives forever when we discover our need for God. In so doing, He will help us realize, depsite what we've done in the past, that we are all a diamond in the rough.
A good saying to live by is this:
“When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration." - Dieter F. Uctdorf
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