2.124 He was Favored of the Lord - AND We Can Be Too

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. Wronged, wronged, wronged, leads to wroth, wroth, wroth.

We're going to be finishing up our readings this week. You're inside of Mosiah chapters 8 through 11. And just a quick reminder, as we do that, Chapter 8 is forward in time.

Chapters 9 through 11 go back in time. So we have left back in time and we are now inside the people of Zeniff and their struggle with the Lamanites in their new land. And I've got an activity right on the front end for you today.

Pay attention in Mosiah chapter 10. How many times the Lamanites were taught by their parents that they were wronged? And how many times they were taught by their parents that because they were wronged they were wroth.

Let's take a look a little bit further into this concept and see if we can take something for us to learn in this experience. Our verse for today is in Mosiah chapter 10 verse 13. We're in the middle of the description of the Lamanites.

I guess we're about 400 years away from Nephi and the original split between Nephi and Laman, the Nephites and the Lamanites. So this has been generational for a long time, right? We're sitting at about 200 BC here or somewhere around that.

And here we have a description of the Lamanites. And it says in Mosiah 10, verse 13, And again, they were wronged while in the land of their first inheritance, after they had crossed the sea. And all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord.

Therefore, he was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness. Now this is all part of the training that the parents of the Lamanites generationally had taught their children and that was that they were wronged because Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord. My friends, don't allow others' perspective of your attempts to be righteous and keep your covenants and keep the commandments.

Don't allow their perspective to affect or change your choices going forward. Nephi knew in whom he trusted. He trusted in the arm of the Lord, not in the arm of the flesh.

And he didn't allow those around him that saw themselves as victims to affect his choices in following the Lord. I can tell you from personal experience that there will be times when you're just trying to do your best. You're just trying to follow the Lord's commandments and others will interpret your attempts that you are trying to be someone holier than thou, someone better than everybody else.

Someone trying to make everybody else look like they're wronged and they're the victim. Your attempts to be righteous are between you and the Lord. Don't allow others around you to look and say, oh, oh, you're just trying to be better than everybody else.

I've had this discussion several times with my girls as well, and I've heard them even share stories and examples in their own lives where friends or people from school have said something just in passing about their attempts to be righteous. Hold to the iron rod. There are those who are afraid of their own wrath, but you and I, we will not be there.

We will turn to the Lord. We will be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord, and thus we will find favor with the Lord and He will hear our prayers and it will be well with us. Do your best, my friends.

Don't allow others around you to take you down the path of how you were the victim and therefore you should be angry. Wronged and wroth is not the path of the Lord. Turn to him, follow the commandments and find favor with the Lord.

I love that one today. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.savorysalt.org.