"God shall be with you forever and ever..."

Doctrine and Covenants 122
7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

This passage of scripture took on a new meaning for me this week as we discussed the baptism of Jesus Christ. He was baptized in the River Jordan, which runs through Jericho. Jericho is right next to the Dead Sea, and subsequently has the lowest elevation in the entire world.

Jesus Christ got baptized in the lowest spot in the world.

He descended below all things even in his own baptism.

The very first thing that Jesus says in the scriptures is in Luke 2:49. He says "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?"

The second recorded thing that he says is in Matthew 3:15 "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."

I don't think it's a coincidence that the first two recorded sayings of Christ are a foreshadowing of the rest of his ministry. He would always be about his Father's business, and he would always be striving to fulfill his Father's plan to fulfill all righteousness.

What I glean from this is the importance of humility and our knowledge of our own divinity. Christ is the perfect example of this because he knew WHO he was, but he also knew WHO his Father was. Having love for oneself and being confident in our calling, is different than being prideful. We can tell Satan to get away from us, for we are endowed with the power to do so. However, that power doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from God. If we can connect in our heads, our own divine worth and potential with the source of that divine worth and potential, we will see that even though Jesus Christ descended below all things, he is exalted above all things. Through his mortal weaknesses, he was still spiritually strong. He was still free of sin. Even when pain, torment, hunger and thirst wracked his mortal body, he never gave into any temptations to satisfy the natural man.

"fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever."