Day 273 Gratitude in Prosperity: Remembering the Lord

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. Is it possible to prosper and not forget the Lord?

I believe it is. Welcome to day 273 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading Helaman chapter 11 verses 32 to 38.

You'll finish up that chapter. And Helaman chapter 12 verses 1 through 11. And we get a little bit of an analysis of what's happening here as Mormon seems to kind of stop and say, folks, is anyone noticing this?

The second you get some prosperity, you forget the Lord. Would you like to help like remember this cycle here? Can you just take a grasp on that?

That's kind of what he's saying. So let's go straight into verse two today in chapter 12. And let's see if we can break this down and actually see that prosperity is not just an automatic curse.

But there are some things that we could do to keep prosperity and the Lord in our lives together. Verse 2 says Yea and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people yea in the increase of their fields, their flocks, and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art, sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies, softening the hearts of their enemies. Now, there is absolutely a warning here about the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to talk about prosperity and the dangers that come into play when life becomes too easy or too wealthy or too rich. But I also don't think that Mormon is saying, hey, everybody be poor. I don't think that's the model either.

And so where's the balance? And I want to bring in an incident that I just had this last weekend as I went to a sacrament meeting that had a missionary coming home speaking and a missionary going out speaking in the same meeting. And it was awesome to hear both of them.

They give great talks. And one of the missionaries, as he was preparing to leave the mission, he said this, and I think this is very timely. Inside of this little transition that, in verse 2, and I want to point out the line, and then I tell you what he said.

There, this line right here: "He doing all these things and in fine doing all the things for the welfare and happiness of his people. Then is the time they do harden their hearts and do forget the Lord their God." Remember that one of the most repeated concepts in the scriptures is remembering. Remember who?

The Lord. Remember what? The blessings.

Remember when? Whenever he blesses his people because of their obedience. And this is what he said that I think goes in line with this verse today that helps us, yes, be prosperous and yes, stay with the Lord and stay on his side of things.

He said, "What if you woke up in the morning and the only thing in your life was the things that you said you were thankful for in your prayer the night before to the Lord?" And that gave me great pause. I thought about some of my prayers at night. I thought about the things when I go into my prayers and the things that I say I'm grateful for.

I know I went through kind of a list in my head and I thought, well, let's see, I would still have my family. I usually say I'm grateful for our house and our cars and our abundance. I usually say I'm grateful for our beds and our blankets and our food and the abundance we have there.

And it really gave me pause to think about the things I am grateful for and the things I express gratitude to for the Lord. This verse I think has a timely piece in it for us to see that in the abundance and the ease and the prosperity of things the danger is to forget the Lord and forget his hand in it. Here an opportunity to not forget and that is to be grateful and share that gratitude with the Lord in your prayers.

Say, in fact, give this a try. Say some prayers over the next couple of days that are only gratitude prayers. Don't ask for anything.

Don't say, please bless anything. Just say, "I'm grateful for," and to see what your prayers sound like, even to you and see how you feel when you get on the backside of those. I'm not saying never ask for anything from the Lord.

The Lord wants us to ask, but I am saying, say some prayers that are strictly gratitude to the Lord and see if you can remember his hand in your life at all times, even in the. 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.