Rehabilitation

Elder Bruce Hafen described the atonement of Jesus Christ as not simply God's method for righting wrongs and satisfying the demands of justice but as a rehabilitative, miraculous power that can help us change who we are. When we genuinely repent before the Lord we are simply humbling ourselves and opening our hearts to divine assistance. Those two forces (repentance and divine assistance) have the power to permanently change our hearts and our lives, preparing us for celestial life.

The word "rehabilitative" caught my eye. The definition of rehabilitate is "to restore to a former state or capacity." We all are in need of spiritual rehab. Try as we might we do not have the power to rehabilitate ourselves. The pupose of the atonement of Christ is to restore us to Heavenly Father, to a condition of sinlessness and to fit us for eternal life. In the process we are "added upon" so that not only are we rehabilitated but we are also rennovated. We have become like our Father. I have had the experience as have many of you of asking Heavenly Father with real intent through the name of Jesus Christ to help me gain a strength I did not have or change something in myself I knew needed changing and quietly receiving an ability beyond my own to accomplish the task at hand. I do know there is a spiritual power beyond ourselves that is available to us when we sincerely seek it.