Day 156 Alma's Recipe for Knowing for Yourself

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. Do you want to know for yourself?

That's the question I have for you today at the beginning of this episode. Welcome to day 156 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Thank you for joining me.

You're going to be reading today Alma chapter 5, verses 40 through 54. Not too long. I hope you're enjoying the insight that Alma provides.

And today we're going to see a cool lens from Alma's perspective here. We're going to read Alma 5 as our verse for the day. Verse 46 says: "All of these are the names of the people who were saved by his Holy Spirit.

And this is the spirit of revelation which is in me." You know, Alma's story is so interesting because he had this incredible conversion experience. He lay, you know, basically dead and mute for three days in this repentance process. And yet the interesting thing here is the way that I read this—I don't know for sure that the Book of Mormon is clear one way or the other—I read this.

This to me sounds like it was outside of that experience, that he deliberately fasted and prayed that he might know these things of himself. This to me tells me that Alma is keeping that light going for him. He's continuing the process and he wants to share it with others.

But that he fasted and prayed many days that he may know of himself is a very simple recipe that we can take into our own lives. I remember many of the people in Mongolia on my mission had incredibly simple faith. I can remember sometimes teaching about Joseph Smith and his experience seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ.

And I remember specifically one time asking a family after we taught that if they would pray about whether Joseph Smith really was a prophet and whether he really did see God and Jesus Christ. And the father said, 'No, I won't pray.' And we thought, oh, you know, what do we do? We said, 'Well, why not?' And he said, 'I don't need to pray.

I already believe that happened.' And it was such a profound experience for me. I kind of paused and I thought, 'Wow, if he already believes, does he need to pray about it?' And yet in that moment, I kind of felt like we should still encourage it. And I think 46 is one of those reasons why.

And I paused and I said, 'Look, I'm so excited and happy that you have chosen to believe this experience. But I want to promise you that if you'll pray about it, you'll get even deeper faith and knowledge that these things are true. Through your prayers the Lord will answer them with his Spirit, and you will be able to know of yourself the way that Alma said, for the Lord God will make them manifest.' And I'm going to read a passage: 'Things will be made manifest unto you by the Holy Spirit, which is pure revelation.' I love that.

Alma Chapter 5 has me fired up. I hope it's got you excited 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 and I hope you are too.