“Knowing How and What We Worship,” Liahona, August 2021
Come, Follow Me
Knowing How and What We Worship
In Doctrine and Covenants section 93, God reveals certain truths about Jesus Christ so we can “know how to worship, and know what [we] worship” (verse 19). This life presents us with many distractions to our true worship of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
“Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god,” wrote President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) to Church members in 1976; “and if his god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry.”
Following is a brief excerpt from President Kimball’s still-applicable message:
Illustration by Katie Payne
“One young man, when called on a mission, replied that he didn’t have much talent for that kind of thing. What he was good at was keeping his powerful new automobile in top condition. …
“All along, his father had been content with saying, ‘He likes to do things with his hands. That’s good enough for him.’
“Good enough for a son of God? This young man didn’t realize that the power of his automobile is infinitesimally small in comparison with the power of the sea, or of the sun; and there are many suns, all controlled by law and by priesthood, ultimately—a priesthood power that he could have been developing in the service of the Lord. He settled for a pitiful god, a composite of steel and rubber and shiny chrome. …
“Our assignment is affirmative: to forsake the things of the world as ends in themselves; to leave off idolatry and press forward in faith. …
“… When a person begins to catch a vision of the true work, when he begins to see something of eternity in its true perspective, the blessings begin to far outweigh the cost of leaving ‘the world’ behind.”1