Day 94: The Lord Prepares the Way for Precious Fruit

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 94.

Wow, we are in the thick of it with Jacob chapter 5. We've been putting together a couple of these ideas. First, our roots of our testimonies, and then what branches are encumbering our lives and maybe getting a little bit too much for our roots to handle.

And then we move into our reading today. And our reading today comes from Jacob chapter 5, verses 50 through 70. So we are just on the tail end of it.

Well done for getting through Jacob chapter 5. You are awesome. So let's look at our verse today and let's put in our third thought of these all continuous together here.

Today's verse is verse 61. And again, I have to say this, inside Jacob 5, especially the context around this, there's a whole story going on with branches and roots and everything. And you're going to want the whole story for these to make sense, but we're just going to stay with the single verses for Savory Salt purposes.

Okay? But you're going to want to read around this. Verse 61 says this: "Wherefore, go to and call servants, that we may labor diligently with our might in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit, which natural fruit is good and the most precious above all other fruit." Interesting to me.

I hope you read this and go, wait, have I heard these phrases before? Because I read this and I thought, wait a second, this is coming from Jacob and Jacob is familiar with Nephi and it's his brother. And then I thought, well, how much does Nephi know Zenos?

It's got some kind of interwebs here, kind of some spiderwebs going on here. Have you heard the phrase that we may prepare the way? Surely the Lord will prepare the way.

Nephi knew that. And I think it's interesting here, this connection that we have with Nephi and Lehi in this verse, and especially when it comes in regards to our thoughts from the other two days: our roots of our testimony, the branches encumbering our lives. If it seems like it's too difficult to maybe cut some branches away, or if we're too nervous to dive in and see what happens when we cut those branches of our lives, then perhaps we need to remember that the Lord prepares a way.

And he will even, in verse 61 here, he's going to call servants to labor diligently to help as well. So the Lord may even bring people in your life that can help you to do what's needed to get those branches back in under control and a little bit more balance between the two, so that the fruit that you bear in your life becomes that fruit that is good and most precious above all other fruit. You see, I think when we take this into account and we declutter our lives and we get focused again on the roots of our testimonies, I think it allows for the Lord to do his part in our lives and help our fruit become that which is most precious above all other fruit.

We become vessels that are able to go and pass God's love on to others around us when we get out of the entanglement that comes with the extra branches that have taken over our lives—the extra things that take all of our focus and our time and our attention. So today, little shout out back to Nephi and Lehi days. The Lord will prepare a way to help you.

He will send people that can help you. Together, you will be able to refine the branches of your life, cut out the things that are not needed in your life, and to focus on those things so that you can produce the most precious above all other fruits, that being the love of God in your own life. Something worth smiling about.

I'm smiling now as I wrap up those thoughts today. We've got one more tomorrow as we finish up Jacob chapter 5. That's all for today, my friends.

Remember 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 and I hope you are too.