2.10 Afflicted and Favored?

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Welcome today and the next couple of days to the Book of Mormon part of our Savory Salt episodes.

You know, I got to tell you, I'm really excited about balancing the two of these. It might get a little chaotic a little bit later in the year, but as for right now, I love the idea of reading Doctrine and Covenants and also reading the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon at the same time.

Today, if you're following along with the pacing, you would be reading 1 Nephi chapter 1. And I know that I just broke it down by chapters, so you're welcome to break that down throughout the week. I will have a download ready for you.

I hope to have that soon. If not, have it already, I will do my best to get that to you. Either way, we're going to be looking today inside of 1 Nephi chapter 1, and I'm excited to be back inside the Book of Mormon.

I know that we just left it like a week or so ago, but it's like, let's keep going. Inside 1 Nephi, our verse for today is going to actually be verse 1. I've debated every time about doing this because verse 1, it's like, oh, come on, you're going to pick the most read verse in the Book of Mormon, right?

And yet, there's something inside verse 1 that struck out to me this time that I don't even think struck out to me last year as we were reading this. So, let's look at the verse and see what we have. 1 Nephi 1:1: I have seen many afflictions in the course of my days and having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days. That seems to be kind of a paradox.

How can we have so many afflictions in our lives and yet be highly favored of the Lord? Nephi's story is a story that the Bible says that we can be blessed and highly favored of the Lord and also have great difficulties in our lives. And those difficulties can ultimately drive us away from the Lord or we can take Nephi's example and turn towards the Lord as we face those difficulties.

It got me thinking about the things that Nephi has experienced through the record he shares with us. This is one of difficulty and challenge physically, mentally, and spiritually. And yet we have some of the greatest verses of scripture from him turning to the Lord and experiencing this highly favored of the Lord that he talks about.

My friends, you and I can be like Nephi. We can experience great afflictions in our lives and still be highly favored of the Lord. Turn to Him.

See what it means to turn your life over to the Lord. It doesn't mean the afflictions go away, but I do believe wholeheartedly that it means the Lord stands side by side with us and takes those afflictions head on. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your heart and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.