Day 349 The Covenant of Productive Prosperity

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 connection exists between productivity and prosperity?

Welcome to day 349 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. And here it is, my final checkpoint for us as we enter into the Book of Mormon. The last days of reading the Book of Mormon together through this year.

Congratulations, as you finish the reading today, you will accomplish 95% of the Book of Mormon being read. Well done. So our reading for today is Ether chapter 10, verses 13 through 34.

We will finish that chapter. And inside of it, as I've mentioned before, on the last couple of days, today is an example that comes on a prosperity side of things. Our verse for today is in Ether chapter 10, verse 28.

It's actually on the tail end of a series here of verses that go, as I'm glancing back, about verse 21 or 22 is where it starts. And then it gets to this kind of wrap-up verse on verse 28. It says, "And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord.

And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it." Now we refer to this land as the Promised Land, right? And we know that there is a covenant associated with the land that the Jaredites are living in here and the Nephites, and the covenant is that as you follow the commandments of the Lord and keep the Lord in your life, you are prospered in the land. And what we see inside of these verses preceding this verse 28 is all the ways that these people were productive.

They were industrious, they were working, and they were working with and for each other. And I think there's an interesting lesson with this one that comes into play. Okay, if we want prosperity in our lives, there's going to be a level of work and productivity that is required for it.

Are you and I willing to work for our prosperity? It took me back into a time in my mission. It was actually quite a difficult time on my mission where my companion and I were asked to go out and we were going to stay through the winter in an area called Hoved.

And I've talked about Hoved before. I love Hoved. A lot of crazy, crazy memories there.

But we were asked to be the first missionaries to stay there through the wintertime. Nobody had ever done that before. And the context of Mongolia was interesting at the time as we were not allowed to openly proselyte as missionaries.

So we couldn't just go out and just start talking to people. The way that the law was written was that if people asked us about Jesus Christ, then we could go ahead and start talking to them about it. But we were not allowed to openly teach Jesus Christ.

And so we went over as English teachers and taught about 20 hours of English in schools over there. But then in this tiny little town that we were in Hoved, through the wintertime, there was really one thing we could do. We'll be right back.

We were struggling with our own productivity. It wasn't the best thing; it was just the best thing we knew at the time to do. It was the only idea that we had.

And I can remember some of the assistants coming out and talking to us about different ways that we could increase our productivity in the hopes that it increased our prosperity. And today I love, I need to go back and see it, but the thing that keeps coming to mind for me is this key that our productivity and our ability to be in motion, adding value to others, seems to be somewhat contingent upon whether or not we are prosperous on the back end. And the cool thing with that is the Lord gets to be the magnifier and the amplifier to that, which means when we do the best that we can in our productivity, the Lord gets to magnify the prosperity that we receive for it.

My friends, it's a great message and reminder for us to be in motion and adding value so that as we generate our light and the light of Jesus Christ, it may be amplified and magnified through the power that the Lord gives us and through his promise to help us be prosperous. 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.