Day 304 Seeking Understanding: Ponder, Pray, Prepare

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. What do you do when you don't have the answer?

Welcome to day 304 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading 3 Nephi 17 verses 1 through 20, and this one is worth slowing down. And just grasping everything that's happening in these verses, there's going to be two miraculous events happening as Christ heals all those that are brought to him.

The lame, the struggling, the sick, the needy, he heals them all one by one. And then on the tail end of our reading today, you get this miraculous event with the children as he gathers the children together and begins praying for them. And that will continue into tomorrow reading And on the front end of this is where our verse is for today actually It comes on the front end of this chapter As we take a look at this it is found in 3rd Nephi chapter 17 verse 3 Christ has just been talking to the people as we got yesterday.

We got some Isaiah moments and we got some prophesying moments. And the people seem a little bit perplexed. They seem like they don't quite grasp what's happening.

And Christ, as the master teacher, understands this. And he's going to pause his instruction. He's not going to keep going forward.

He's not going to say, hold on, I got more to tell you. He's not going to say, hey, we've got to hurry on. He's going to pause.

And this is what we get in verse three. He says, Therefore go ye unto your homes and ponder upon the things which I have said and ask of the Father in my name that ye may understand and prepare your minds for the morrow and I come unto you again. Now he's preparing to leave and then these miraculous moments happen he doesn't actually leave but in his preparation to leave here he gives us an awesome pattern that we can We're going to apply in our lives in times when we're trying to understand gospel truths inside of this context or even things in our lives where we're looking for answers.

What does he say here He says look go home First ponder upon the things which I said Have the question that you have in mind in front of you and think on it Ponder about it And then what do we do We pray We ask the Father in the name of Christ to understand So we seek out personal revelation by asking Heavenly Father specifically about this And then prepare your minds for I come again. After you have pondered on this and after you've prayed about it, prepare. Prepare to dive into the words of Christ again and then go after it again.

I love this pattern. If I can talk for just a second about one of the things I use in the Gospel Library app. I love the tag feature in the Gospel Library app and I use it inside of my scriptures and conference talks and a couple of the tags that I have just as an example.

Tagging, you can take a phrase and then add a tag and what that will do is put all of those thoughts under one specific Some of my tags are, I have one that is, that it's called tools of God. And when I come across things that the Lord uses for tools in my life, I highlight that and I tag it tools of God. I have another one that says tools of Satan.

And so when I see ways that Satan may use his strategies against us in the scriptures, I label those so that I'm aware of those. One of the ones I love that fits into this verse here is Think Deeper. That's the name of my tag.

And I come across verses sometimes and if I don completely understand them or I read it and I say wow there something behind there Allen for you to improve on Then I tag it think deeper and I can go into my think deeper tags and this is what I can do I can ponder I can pray I can prepare and then I can go and seek the words of Christ some more My friends, this is a great pattern for us to have in our lives directly from our Savior teaching us here. He says, if you don't get it, if you don't understand something, ponder on it, Pray about it, prepare to receive more information about it, and then go and seek the words of Christ. I love this pattern.

I hope that it helps you and I increase our savory levels as we go through the scriptures and come across those things that are difficult to understand. I love this pattern. I'm grateful for it and grateful that the Savior has taken time to help us in our mortality to improve our lives and be more like Him.

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.