7:1 - "...have I put thee away, or have I cast thee off forever..."
The Lord does not put us away or cast us off...it is because of our own sins that we do that to ourselves. We must repent and humble ourselves and come unto Him if we do not wish to be cast off forever.
7:7-8 - "...the Lord God will help me..."
I want to live my life in such a way that I will always be able to say with confidence that the Lord God will help me too.
7:10 - "...who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?..."
This is not just a nice statement - it's a promise...and an awesome one at that. If we want to have a guiding light that we desperately need, then we need to respect and fear the Lord and obey his voice (through the commandments and teachings). This will give us the light that we need and show us what we need to do.
6:7,13 - "...they shall not be ashamed that wait for me..."
They won't be ashamed because they will be keeping the commandments and will be looking forward to His coming.
If I don't want to be ashamed, I must do the same.
6:8-9 - "...the Lord has shown unto me..."
How great it is to have a prophet that speaks with the Lord! Many great and marvelous things have been and will be revealed - then it's up to us to be obedient.
6:14 - "...none will he destroy that believe in him..."
Sure we may go through tough times...we may (ok, we will) have emotional and physical pains. We will have times that things don't seem to go our way. We may even die physically. But we will not be spiritually destroyed if we believe in Jesus and act on that belief to follow Him.
6:17 - "...I will contend with them that contendeth with thee..."
Sometimes the Lord takes sides in a battle - but it's always the right side (Romans 8:31).
Whose side am I on?
5:18 - "...Nephi...did for them according to that which was in (his) power..."
That's what we are asked to do in our own stewardship - just do the best we can, and the Lord will help with the rest as we do our part righteously.
5:27 - "...we lived after the manner of happiness..."
There are so many things that can get us down - a week-long sickness, losing loved ones, etc. But we need to live after the manner of happiness (and gratefulness) and things will work out in the end.
Alma 44:5 - "the gospel...to which we owe all our happiness..."
The gospel leads us to Christ. We must come unto Christ, for he will succor us in our times of need.
5:31 - "...wherefore, I, Nephi, to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, went and made these plates upon which I have engraven these things..."
This shows a good example of acting in faith, even without seeing necessarily the outcome. If we want help, sometimes we need to act before we know what's going on. As we sincerely try, the Lord will help us.
4:4 - "...inasmuch as ye keep the commandments, ye shall prosper..."
Many times we wonder how we can do better and get better things - but if we seek first the kingdom of God, these things will be added unto us. First, we must keep the commandments (Jacob 2:18-19).
We must keep the commandments if we want to be blessed.
4:15 - The scriptures are written for our learning and profit.
We should delight in and ponder the scriptures. As we do, we realize the great things the Lord has done for our fathers (Moroni 10:3).
Then we are more grateful and humble because we realize that we are dependent upon the the Lord and that He loves and blesses us.
4:24 - "...and by day I have waxed bold in mighty prayer..."
I think I need to study this a bit more, because I think I say "safe" prayers and I could be more bold. I need to figure out the best way to pray in faith, and how to really talk to Heavenly Father.
4:28-35 - "...awake my soul..."
It is true that we are not perfect. We sin. But we do not have to lease heart because of our afflictions. We are immensely blessed, and, to be honest, what are four days of stomach flu in comparison to eternal life and happiness?
Let us be grateful.
3:3-4 - "...thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed..."
Nephi and his brothers went back to Jerusalem to get the plates so their seed would be preserved (1 Nephi 3:2-3).
Today, we preach the gospel to them, and they preach it to us.
3:5 - Joseph truly saw our day.
Mormon also saw our day (Mormon 8:35).
They knew what we are going through, and they wrote so that it would help us overcome evil.
We need to read, understand, and apply the teachings, and come unto Christ.
3:13 - "...out of weakness he shall be made strong..."
Ether 12:27.
The Lord qualifies us so we have help. We need to keep the commandments to take advantage of that help.
3:14-15,24 - Prophecies of Joseph Smith
It was prophesied that he would be "an instrument in the hands of God." He truly was that instrument. We are very blessed to have all that he wrote and revealed through the power of the Holy Ghost to us.
We must be grateful and not squander our own investment and responsibility.
3:21 - "...because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren..."
The Book of Mormon is given to us through many means, but especially through the faith of our Nephite brethren who wrote it. It's an amazing blessing and we learn so much through reading, studying, and applying the principles in the book.
We need to do our part...they did theirs already!
2:8 - "...how great the importance to make these things known..."
It's our purpose to be instruments in God's hands to bring others unto Christ. This is no small matter. How sad would I be if I never had the truth?
Let us share the Gospel.
2:12 - Purpose of the creation of the world
The Lord created the earth so that it would be inhabited.
We were created to inhabit, beautify, and replenish the earth.
(1 Nephi 17:36, D&C 88:25, Moses 1:31)
2:16 - "...we could not act without being enticed by one or the other..."
If we were not enticed, we would not act...either for good or bad. We would just sit and do nothing (Moroni 7:13).
If we want to do what is right, we must give ourselves good motivation!
2:25 - "...Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy..."
Moses 1:39 - Purpose of God - His work and glory.
D&C 11:20 - Our work
Alma 29:9 - Our glory...and our joy
D&C 18:10,15-16 - Worth of Souls - our joy
Just as God has His own work and glory - we have our own work and glory. It really involves helping the Lord with His work and glory.
2:25 - "...men are that they might have joy..."
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf talked about this in the November 2007 Ensign pg. 18-21:
"Wherever you live on this earth and whatever your life's situation may be, I testify to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the divine power to lift you to great heights from what appears at times to be an unbearable burden or weakness."
There really is no reason to be unhappy. We can be going through the most amazingly tough trials and have the attitude, "What wonderful trials I'm blessed to have!"
Sure it's tough. But we can still be happy.
If we're sad or depressed, etc., we need to figure out what's causing these feelings, then change, so we can have joy.
2:27 - We are free to make our choices, no matter where it leads us.
However...the eventual result of any good decision will be our happiness. The Lord paid the price, then told us that we can choose that path or not. Why would I want to choose another path?
Let us resist the natural man and Satan's temptations and choose the Lord's path.
2:28 - "...be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit..."
We have to make the choice. If we are faithful to the Lord, we will have eternal life. If we are faithful to Satan, then we will receive captivity.
It's up to us to decide and then act in faith.
1:1 - Lehi related to his sons the great things the Lord had done for their fathers.
When we are studying the Book of Mormon (and all scriptures) we are invited to meditate upon the same things (Moroni 10:3).
By remembering the great things the Lord has done for our fathers, it helps us to remember the Lord, give credit where credit is due, and be more humble by being more grateful to the Lord for all that He does.
Let us, then, be grateful.
1:6-9 - "...none shall be brought into the land save by the Lord..."
We are blessed to live in this land, and have great responsibility as well.
If we are not righteous, we will be brought into captivity - whether it is slave to Satan and his whims, or slave to the captivity of debt, addiction, etc.
1:21-23 - "...arise from the dust, and be men..."
How can we be men?
By putting on the armor of righteousness, shaking off the binding chains, and letting our light shine - or rather - the Lord's light shine through us.
When we do this, we are instruments in the hands of the Lord.
1:31 - "...because thou hast been faithful thy seed shall be blessed with his seed..."
It's true that we need to be faithful to the Lord. We also need to be faithful to each other.
In order to become more Christlike, we must help those around us and be instruments in the hands of God.
