Day 282 Faith Beyond Signs and Resisting Pride

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 282 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today, you're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 1 verses 17 through 30. You'll finish that chapter and just sneak into 3 Nephi chapter 2. And before we get to the verse for today, I'm going to actually go straight to Elder Bednar.

He just recently gave a conference talk that has such a powerful message inside of it and feeds directly into what we've been talking about as we've gone through the Book of Helaman and we're now in the front end of 3 Nephi. And this is Elder Bednar speaking. He says: "The Book of Mormon is not primarily a historical record that looks to the past.

Rather, this volume of Scripture looks to the future and contains important principles, warnings, and lessons intended for the circumstances and challenges of our day. Hence, the Book of Mormon is a book about our future and the times in which we do now and will yet live. Ancient voices from the dust plead with us today to learn this everlasting lesson: Prosperity, possessions, and ease constitute a potent mixture that can lead even the righteous to drink the spiritual poison of pride.

We can follow the example of the Lamanites in the Book of Helaman who turned to God and were brought to a knowledge of the truth by believing the teachings in the Holy Scriptures and of prophets." Wow, what a powerful message from Elder Bednar to remind us that as we read the Book of Mormon, we're actually looking at our future and the things that we should be aware of as we live our lives. Now with that being said, let's take a look at 3 Nephi 1 verse 17. It's the very front of our reading for today.

Verse 17 says: "And they began to know that the Son of God must shortly appear. Yea, in fine, all the people upon the face of the whole earth, from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth." Now I chose this one today because we see that everyone in the land of the Lamanites and the Nephites understood what was happening here. All the people upon the face of the whole earth, they all saw the signs and they were all aware of them.

At which point you would think, 'Oh my goodness, they totally would stick with their conversion, right?' They became super strong. And yet, if we do our reading today, we see that in less than about 20 verses later, we are back into people not believing and not caring about the signs of the Savior. My friends, I hope that we can see the message from Elder Bednar and the message that we get here that even as strong as signs coming from the heavens may be in our lives, our conversion will always rely upon our ability to have faith in the Lord, repent of our sins, and live and keep our covenants with our Heavenly Father.

That is what will keep us on the true and right path. I hope that you and I will stay close to this as we read this continual cycle of challenges from these people as they gave into their pride rather than stuck with their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoo!

That's a powerful one today. 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.