Day 97 Fortify and Trust in God, Our Rock of Salvation

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 97 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon.

We are finishing Jacob Chapter 7 today. You're going to read Jacob Chapter 7, verses 9 through 27, and wrap up Jacob's writings. Now, yesterday we talked about Sherem and Jacob just a little bit, and I hope that you have an opportunity to read the rest of his story today and see the warnings that Jacob puts in place there.

I hope that you are aware and see that there is a concern and something to be aware of when it comes to the smooth and silky voices of today, because they're going to come not just in the secular world, they're going to come from a lot of different directions. And I hope the verse that we've selected today is a verse that helps you decide what that means for you in your life going forward. By the way, if you didn't sneak those other verses around Verse 4, I'd encourage you to read Jacob's point of view and how his testimony is so concrete, because that leads into our verse for today.

I hope you see some connections there between the way Jacob describes himself and our verse today. Now, our verse today is Verse 25, right near the end of the chapter. Let's read it and then let's talk about it.

Verse 25 says, "Wherefore, the people of Nephi did fortify against them with their arms and with all their might, trusting in the God and rock of their salvation. Wherefore, they became as yet conquerors of their enemies." Now, the "them" in this verse is actually talking directly about the Lamanites. Jacob gives us a little bit of insight here, a couple of verses where he says that the Lamanites and the Nephites have We've done battle, and we know that Nephi did battle before he died, and that continues.

And we get this intense hatred all the way through wars and bloodsheds inside of this chapter. Yet Jacob is saying, "Look, the people of Nephi did their best to do these things." And this is the continuation from yesterday a little bit. If there are the flattering voices out there—if there are the convincing voices that are competing with your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ—then perhaps Verse 25 is an opportunity for you to say, "How can I do these things?" What are you doing to fortify against your "quote-unquote Lamanites" of today?

What are you doing to do "all your might"? What are you doing to trust in God and "the rock of your salvation"? What level of trust does it take to call the Lord your "rock"?

These are some great introspective questions worth digging into personally for you. These are things that I pose to myself. I guess maybe I ask too many questions.

I've been told that before, but that's okay, because these questions lead me to dig in and to decide what my testimony looks and sounds like for me. And I want to have a testimony of God that is so strong that I can call it "the rock of my salvation." And then just a little reminder there: the end of that says, "they became as yet conquerors of their enemies." You want a recipe for conquering the enemies? Here you have it.

Dive into Jacob Chapter 7. And that wraps up our thoughts on the book of Jacob, and we move in over the next couple. We'll be covering them within one- and two-day chunks of savory salt.

Stick with me. I hope you enjoy it. We're going to get into some good stuff going forward as we've already done some incredible stuff behind us as well.

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. I hope you are too.