Ether 15

How many of you have heard of the "zero-sum" game that is used in economics? If you haven't, it isn't really hard to understand. It means that the end result must equal zero. So, where one party gains one degree of something, someone else has to lose one degree of that same thing. I know, I probably confused you. I am sorry. If you have any questions, you can refer to the font of all knowledge: wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum)

So, this morning I read Ether 15, which is one of the bloodiest chapters in all of the Book of Mormon. Hence, the first words in the chapter heading are "Millions of the Jaredites are slain in battle." I didn't know if I would learn anything from this chapter, but I did. In verse 19, it says, "But behold, the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people..." It hit me this morning that our individual hearts are a place where the zero-sum game takes place. The two opposing parties are Satan and Heavenly Father. If one of them gains 1% of our heart, the other party has to lose 1% of their power over us. Hence, the scripture that says, "No man can serve two masters." (3 Ne. 13:24) We can't fully serve both at the same time. We only have, in essence, 100% of ourselves to give. We can't give 100% to Satan and 100% to Heavenly Father.

That is mathematically and physically impossible. Thus, in Ether 15, when Satan gains "full power over the hearts of man" that means that there is no place in their hearts for Heavenly Father. In essence, Heavenly Father has a relative power of 0% where as Satan has 100% of their hearts. The war between Heavenly Father is still fought today, but it is fought within the individual hearts of those on the Earth today. How much are we allotting to Heavenly Father? How much of our heart are we allotting to Satan? My prayer is that I will, and I hope you will as well, take a look within my heart and see how much of my 100% is allotted to Heavenly Father. Let us all be like Captain Moroni in Alma 48 where it states:

"Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." (v. 17)