Day 270 Pondering, Faithfulness, and Divine Empowerment

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. While some may see sometimes, the Lord sees all the time.

Welcome to Day 270 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading Helaman 9, verses 22 to 41. You will finish that chapter, and Helaman chapter 10, verses 1 through 5, as you get started on that chapter.

Helaman chapter 9 gives us the second half of the story of Nephi prophesying about the death of the chief judge and then what happens around this murder mystery. And I think it's interesting to catch inside of there. I think, what is it, verses 39 and 40, are some interesting verses that are going to feed into our verse.

We will see this interesting idea. After all of the evidence that Nephi provides, he even dictates what's going to happen as they go to the brother of the former chief judge, and they find out he's the murderer. He gives them all the details of what's going to happen.

And despite all of the evidence that he provides through the inspiration of the Lord, it says in verses 39 and 40 that some people were convinced he was a prophet. And that was really interesting to me. Some people.

And I sit here and I think, what happened to the other people? Like, they just watched Nephi say what's going to happen here, and they were too blind to see it. And so no matter how clear a prophet of the Lord is going to speak here, even some people will be the ones that will hear and buy into the evidence that the prophet is a prophet of God.

And so then we get into Helaman 10, and at the beginning of it, this kind of funny thing happens. It's like everyone just kind of dissipates and goes home, and Nephi's kind of standing in the town circle. He's like, he's like kind of hanging out, and he starts pondering.

And I want to encourage you to think into, maybe even ponder, the power of pondering in your life. And then we get through his pondering a moment with the voice of the Lord. And that's going to be our verse for today in Helaman chapter 10, verse 4.

It says, "This is the voice of the Lord coming unto him, saying, 'Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done, for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word which I have given unto thee unto this people; and thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will.'" All of them. In this moment where Nephi could have perhaps been pondering, how did this conversation just go down? I mean, I don't know exactly what he was pondering, but he was thinking into the instructions and the things the Lord had given him to do and to fulfill as a prophet.

He's thinking about his Church assignments. He's thinking about the calling that's before him and how he's going to get these people to repent. And inside of that pondering, the Lord's going to say, "I see you.

I see what you're doing and I see your efforts." And he's going to actually go into the moment here where Nephi is going to get the power to literally seal on earth and in heaven. The Lord sees through his actions that he doesn't do anything contrary to the will of the Lord. And so he empowers Nephi with even greater ability and authority and power.

This is such a great moment for us to realize that in our moments. The Lord sees it all the time. Buy into that and know that the Lord is there.

He's watching you and wants to empower you in everything you're trying to do to seek His will and keep His commandments. What a wonderful blessing we have to have a Heavenly Father so aware of all of our actions. 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.