Day 8 Nephi: Effort, Then Led by the Spirit

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 am cheering for your every success. Welcome to day eight.

We are through the first week and into the second week of reading the Book of Mormon over the next 365 days. Man, today gets a little heavy and then it leaves you in the middle of the story. But don't worry, we have day nine where we're going to talk a little bit more about that.

Today's reading, if you're following along in this pacing, you're going to read 1 Nephi 3, verses 25 to 31. So you're going to finish the third chapter of 1 Nephi. And then you're going to read 1 Nephi chapter 4, verses 1 through 13.

And spoiler alert, there verse 13 literally leaves you on a cliffhanger in the middle of a story with Nephi making an incredible decision, a very, very tough decision that we're going to talk about. Maybe we'll see you tomorrow as we dive into verse, well, I won't tell you the verse that's going to come in tomorrow on day nine because today's day eight. So let's dive into the verse for today.

It's going to be found in 1 Nephi 4, verse 6. This is Nephi and his brothers have been sent out to go and get the brass plates and to bring them back and they're failing. They're having some struggles.

They've failed several times. I heard a lot of people use this verse as some sort of justification to procrastinate. They read it and they go, "Yeah, yeah, just be like Nephi, you know, just I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'm just going to go and be led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." I think there's a different perspective here in Nephi's version. What I see is, I see in just a couple of these initial chapters, I see Nephi preparing himself for these types of scenarios in his life. I see him actively seeking the will of the Lord.

I see him trying to keep the commandments. I see him doing his best to obey his father and learn from his dad. I see all these things that Nephi is doing and then I see him step forward and say, "All right, I was led by the Spirit because I really didn't know what else I could do." And I think there's an awesome lesson inside of that because Nephi did the work first.

He did everything he could and then he left the rest in the Lord's hands. I think there's an awesome lesson inside of that. If I remember correctly, I think it was President Hinckley that wrote a letter to his dad that was struggling on his mission.

And his dad wrote him a letter back and basically said, "Get to work and leave the rest to the Lord." And I think that what Nephi is trying to tell us here is, "I didn't know what else to do, but I certainly had done everything that I could." So, don't read verse 6 and say, "I'm just going to be Nephi. I'm just going to fly. I don't know what I'm going to do beforehand.

I'm just going to roll with it." Instead, do everything you can to make the plan work for you and then leave the rest to the Lord and seek to be led by the Spirit as Nephi was. That's all we have for today. Remember, my friends, that 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. I hope you are too.