“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19). Naturalization is the process in which one becomes a full citizen of another country. For many countries, a requirement to become fully naturalized involves renouncing any citizenship, allegiances, affiliations, or ties to any other nations. And obviously, if the nation to which one is becoming a naturalized citizen happens to be an enemy of one's former nation, then that former nation would become their enemy as well. We are all natural born citizens of the Kingdom of God. During our time on this Earth, we are strangers in a strange land. We are not meant to become naturalized citizens of the Kingdom of the World, because the Prince of this World demands that anyone wishing to become naturalized must renounce their citizenship and allegiance to the Kingdom of God. And if we do go through this naturalization process, then we must become the enemies of God, since our adopted nation is locked in an eternal war with the nation that we have forsaken. Since we must be in the world, it can be very tempting to become of the world. After all, the laws, rights, and privileges of citizens of the World seem so enticing. But our time in this kingdom is limited, and it is much better to endure for a time the struggles and annoyances of sojourning as foreigners in a kingdom that is hostile to any who refuse to become naturalized, than it would be to just give into the naturalization process and lose our citizenship to the Kingdom of God for all eternity. The great news is that if in our folly we have renounced our citizenship in the Kingdom of God, we can always turn back and submit to the will of our Heavenly Father and be counted once more as citizens of His kingdom. I hope that we will all choose today to renounce any ties or allegiances to the Kingdom of the World and take back our place as natural born citizens of the Kingdom of God.
