Remove Babylon from your heart by releasing Core Beliefs
For most of us we think of Babylon as being the economic and materialistic world. We think that if we can get out of the city and on some land, grow our own food, raise animals, and be off the grid, we can escape Babylon. This may be true to a degree but we still have to buy the land, provide a dwelling of some sort to live in, purchase the seeds, buy equipment, perhaps pay some utility bills, pay taxes on the land, etc. which all requires income or savings. All of those things are still part of Babylon. Until Zion is built and the Lord’s economy is instituted there will be essentials to buy and bills to pay. Being away from the cities is a great thing for those who can pull it off, however, it is not possible for most of us yet, so how do we get out of Babylon? What if we don’t get out of Babylon but get Babylon out of us?
We have been raised in a Babylonian world. All institutions have Babylonian beliefs and principles at their core. It has been so since the flood. If Babylon is interwoven into everything around us what can we do to live God’s command to get out of Babylon. It seems to me that perhaps our biggest challenge are the core beliefs that have been drummed into us by the very fabric of our society, that are buried deep in our consciousness and inform our lives. In the T&C section 157 the 51st paragraph the Lord tells us to “Flee from the cares and longings that belong to Babylon”. I wonder if those “cares and longings” stem from our core beliefs. You may be asking yourself, “What in the world is he talking about?” That would be a good question. How do you identify your own core beliefs? For example, after Nephi had returned from being “carried away in the spirit” he came upon his brothers contending about what their father had told them regarding the parable of the Olive Tree. Nephi’s response to them is very informative on the subject we are discussing here. He asked, “…Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me, We have not, for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” (1 Nephi 4:2 RE; 1 Nephi 15:8-9 LE) There are at least two gems we can glean from this example. First, can you see the inherent lie in their response? “The Lord talks to prophets and such not to me!” The second is in the very question Nephi asks. The Lord loves us beyond anything we can imagine, and He will reveal whatever we need if we will just ask, listen and are patient. There is of course the caveat that we should be following His path by living the commandments. But that comes down to choices. The lie that the Lord wont’ talk to us is a core belief that greatly limits our ability to progress.
Let’s look at three core beliefs that we all struggle with to some degree. They are 1) I’m not good enough, 2) I’m not loveable, and 3) I’m not worthy. Those are lies that the world, society, and the adversary tell us. We reinforce those lies in our children and those around us in phrases like: you are so stupid, what a dumb thing to do, what is wrong with you, etc. etc. Words have power. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on these but let’s look at them a little closer.
1) “I’m not good enough.” You could also say “I’m not smart enough”, this is one of the hardest beliefs to release. We all make mistakes, we all do things that we wish we hadn’t. It’s just part of life, perhaps even an essential part of life. We have a mechanism the Lord provides for us to overcome sin, shortcomings, mistakes, even poor choices, and even personality traits that may not be in alignment with who we want to be. The Lord has given us the repentance process where we can ask for forgiveness and help to overcome. We have to put in the effort to change to become more like our Savior, but He is very patient. The saying “that’s just the way I am” is pure horse-pucky. It means you are not willing to change. As long as you are working at following the Lord’s commandments and repenting, you are always good enough.
2) “I’m not loveable.” The Lord loves you! People can be fickle. Society places often unreasonable expectations upon us, but no matter what, the Lord loves you. As-a-matter-of-fact you are so precious to Him that He suffered the atonement and death upon the cross, which was so excruciating that a regular mortal man could not have endured it. He did that for you! You are loveable. The Lord gave us two great commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the second part it is implicit that we love ourselves, which can often be the hardest part.
3) “I’m not worthy.” We often think that worthiness has to do with how well we follow rules and commandments, but it is not that at all. Worthy is to be “fitted for”, “made for”, “prepared for”. We have been prepared for this life before we came here. So we are prepared for anything that comes our way. We were created by Heavenly Parents who love us and have provided a path for us to follow to return to them through our Redeemer. All of our life experiences from wonderful to excruciating have been for our growth, to prepare us for more. We are all worthy!
A couple of posts ago I included an excerpt from the journal of my friend, Sarah, about what the Lord had been teaching her. I would like to expand on some of the things the Lord told Sarah from that previous blog post. He said “You shrink from me because you have been taught according to the economy of Babylon. Things such as; failure is not allowed and a reason to feel shame…” First of all we need to have a better understanding of what success is, because in the world anything short of success (wealth, power, fame) is failure. I think the Lord’s definition would be more like “…this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and the eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39 LE, Gen 1:7 RE) Now I am going out on a limb, but in my mind the Lord is not concerned with our financial success or how much power or influence we have, and not really even concerned with our occupation. He is more concerned with us following the path (the example set by His Only Begotten Son) to get back to His presence. Our path is paved with the stones of what we learn from our experiences, both successes and failures, and the very next stone to be laid is what we should have learned.
Another core belief is that we deserve justice, at least justice from our own point of view. During my senior year in High School I had a friend, she was a junior, who (while I was on a mission for the LDS church) was killed by a drunk driver. Her father, who was a stake president and a really good man, went to the jail where the man was being held and told him that he forgave him. The world would and did demand justice, this man should rot in jail. For the father, however, it was not justice that this man deserved it was mercy and a sense that he was forgiven by this father and could be forgiven by our Father for the tragic result of his irresponsible actions. When we see something wrong or we are wronged, by damn someone should pay. When something goes wrong in our lives we need to have someone to blame because it is never our fault. Just as this father, we should seek forgiveness and mercy for ourselves and others involved. After all gaining forgiveness and mercy is the reason for the Atonement of our Lord.
All of these core beliefs, and many others, are lies promoted by the adversary designed to keep us from seeing who we are in the eyes of the Lord. One of the most heinous lies and most challenging is that you are alone; ”No one knows what I am going through”. That is a main part of the atonement, that our Lord would know specifically how to succor each of us as we go through life’s trials tribulations, and challenges.
Some additional core beliefs: you have to earn everything you get, there is no equality—you are the best or you are nothing, we have to earn God’s love to be redeemed. There are probably others that you may be able to come up with. The next question that should come to our minds is, how do we now release those core beliefs?
There are many ways to accomplish the release of core beliefs, however, may I suggest some thoughts that have been rattling around my brain? Even though these may not be categorized as sin (although they are lies) perhaps repentance is an appropriate process. That may sound trite but let me expand my thoughts. Let’s look at the core belief “I am not loveable”.
1. Repent—identify the belief, action or thought. Ask the Lord to forgive you for harboring this lie.
2. Find some lessons that you have learned or positive behaviors adopted as a result of believing this lie (there are always positives sometimes it takes some deep thought and reflection to identify them) and express gratitude for the lessons learned.
3. Forgive all those in your life who have reinforced the belief and forgive yourself for all of the thoughts, actions and behaviors that reinforced that lie.
4. Replace the lie with a positive belief, in this example it would be something like “I am loveable!” And turn toward Christ.
The Lord loves you!
