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Originally Posted by jay santos
I had the exact same thoughts. They don't seem contradictory in the least to me.
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I would go further and suggest that they are actually mutually reinforcing. WHen we throw off the natural man we submit to the will of God. This doen't mean we become unthinking automotons or that we enter the workhouse of the Lord, but that we voluntarily submit to his approach to life. Alma is urging his son to be submissive in this way, to throw himself at God's feet, as you put it, and make himself available to Him as his servant in humility and in acknopwledgement of God as God. The D&C passage can be used to support a number of ideas, among which is that we should not act out of compulsion, but out of will. So we are told we shouldn't have to be ordered, we should instead be eager and willing to do God's bidding. Acting as God would have us act does not mean that we must wait until we are ordered to do something; assuming the attirbutes of charity and love we can act accordingly without specific direction or compulsion, which is what He would have us do. I see them as going together well.