Day 3 By the Wisdom of God: Fulfilling Your Purpose

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. Welcome to day three.

We are on the last of this front end of the Book of Mormon, all the things that are before you even get to the stories and the verses. So thank you for joining me for these three days. Today, if you're following along on the third day, not a heavy reading day today, but a heavy reading day, and that another great resource to figure out what in the world you're reading and to look at who wrote what and when it was written.

But that is not the verse that we're going to dive into today. Instead, the section that I chose to dive into today comes on the tail end of the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Now, yesterday we talked about the front end of his testimony.

Today, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the way that he wrapped up here. Now, if you want his full testimony and full kind of explanation about what happened, you can certainly go to the link in the description, so to the Pearl of Great Price and find Joseph Smith—History there, where he breaks this down into a lengthier version, right, of what happened. But here in the last paragraphs, last couple paragraphs, I'm just going to read in the middle of it a little bit.

He says something that I think is really interesting for all of us to kind of frame ourselves inside of a little bit. He's gone through, he's been learning from the angel, right, and he's gone and visited the plates and he's seen them, but he's never been able to pick them up. And then he gets the opportunity finally comes to take the plates.

And he mentions that as soon as he takes the plates, he realizes why he had had such strict charges, he says, right, to keep them safe, because all of a sudden it was like people knew that he had the plates. And this is what he says. This is his own words inside of this paragraph.

He says: "For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and more severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible." Literally, people are trying to steal the gold plates.

They've heard that Joseph Smith has these gold plates and everyone wants a piece. And so they're trying to do anything they can to get these plates from Joseph. Sounds like it was, you know, pretty hefty work for him.

But then this part comes in and I love this part of his testimony. He says, "But by the wisdom of God they remained safe in my hands until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him.

And he has them until this day." Okay. I love this part right here. By the wisdom of God.

You know, I think all of us have a work to do. We have a purpose here. We have meaning to our lives.

We have things to accomplish, and they're going to be hard, and there are going to be days where people are going to talk trash behind our back, or maybe to our face. They're going to say things. They're going to try and take the things that are most precious to us.

And I love that this part here, that by the wisdom of God, Joseph had the ability to keep them safe and to accomplish the thing that he had been asked to do. And I think we too, if we lean on God, can have those moments in our lives where we too can have the faith that we're going to be able to accomplish the things that the Lord wants us to accomplish. So there's our day three for you today.

That's all I have for today. And remember, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt.

I'll be here tomorrow. See you tomorrow. I hope you are too.