What path are we really on?

At what point do we stop just procrastinating the days of our repentance and start provoking the Lord?

My husband recently sent me something that said:

“Procrastination is the arrogant assumption that God owes you another opportunity to do what you had time to do.”

Perhaps that is why it is a provocation to God when we refuse to rise up and ascend the mountain but instead prefer to have Moses do it and then just tell us what to do.

 
And what are we to repent of?

 
What are we to offer up to God as an acceptable sacrifice?

What was it that the children of Israel refused to do? Because it was a blatant refusal on their part, otherwise God would not have been provoked.

 
They surely offered many sacrifices as they left Egypt and yet they still provoked God by refusing to give what was asked.

Is it possible that we offer up many “sacrifices” but still refuse to offer that one sacrifice that God asks of us?

How do we know if we have offered it up? Can we know? Is it possible to actually, really know where we stand before God…if God actually accepts our sacrifice? Will there be evidence, fruit, or results as the Covenant of Christ calls it?

What is this sacrifice that is required? Is it this:

“Men and women, in their natural state, are out of harmony with God and have been since the fall of Adam. This disharmony will continue from eternity to eternity, unless they yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, abandon their fallen nature, and become holy through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. They should strive to become like a child, humble, meek, patient, and full of love, willing to accept everything that the Lord deems appropriate for them, as a child obeys their parents.”

Apparently it is a rare person who will actually sacrifice their natural man, or fallen nature, and wholly submit to the spirit of God. Jesus advises that:

“You should enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is vast that leads to destruction, and many enter through those; because the gate is narrow and the pathway tight leading to life, and very few find it.”

How do we know what gate we have entered, what path we are on?

Jesus told his disciples in 3 Nephi:

“But I feel sadness for the fourth generation from you, because they will be led away captive by the accuser, just as the son of perdition was. They will sell Me for silver and gold and for things that moths destroy and thieves can break in and steal. And I’ll punish them at that time and let the violent experience violence.
When Jesus had finished saying this, He advised his disciples: Enter through the narrow gate. Because the gate is narrow and the pathway tight leading to life, and very few find it. But the gate is wide and the way easy leading to death, and a great number follow it until the night comes when no work can be done.”

And so we are back to procrastination.

There are few things in this statement that I find quite interesting. First, Jesus says that people will sell HIM for silver, gold and stuff. Are we too at risk of “selling” Jesus for all of our stuff because that is what our heart is set upon? Is that trade really worth it!!? 

Are we really willing to have our hearts set upon our experience here in mortality to the point that we will trade salvation through Jesus for it all?

 
Is that our fallen nature, to hold on to this life–all of our stuff yes, but everything else too, all of our beliefs and fears, hopes and dreams, our pride and ego, our impatience and unconscious, triggered behaviors, our careers and hobbies, our wounds and traumas? Are we really willing to trade what Jesus is offering for that?

 
Apparently most are.

Another thing I find interesting is that Jesus says that a great number follow this easy path that leads to death until the night comes when no one can work.

 
This seems to indicate that many who are on this wide, easier path are people who perhaps intend to repent and get off the easy path to destruction and to offer that acceptable sacrifice and get on that narrow, tight path that leads to God….but they wait too long. They procrastinate until it is too late and then they can’t get off in time. 

Or perhaps they fool themselves and think they are actually on the narrow path because they do lots of stuff and even sacrifice many things like the children of Israel, but will find themselves knocking at the gate asking the Lord to let them in because they did all this stuff for Him, but he will say: Yes, but you never knew me and you cannot come where I am.

It is also interesting that Jesus says this to his disciples at Bountiful. The 12 he called and commissioned to lead the people. He tells them after all they experienced when Jesus descended down to them, to enter through the narrow gate.

 
Have we entered that narrow gate? Are we on that tight and difficult path? Are we sure?