2.215 Want Something Specific In Life? Send It Out

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, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. What does restore mean to you? We've been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants section 84, talking about the oath and covenant of the priesthood and the power of God therein.

We've also been reading Alma chapters 39 through 42, the wisdom and counsel of a loving parent. The word Restore has been interesting and I didn't realize until kind of digging into these chapters in Alma through a general conference talk by Elder Gong that the word restore, restored or restoration or those variants are mentioned 22 times in the chapters of Alma 40 and 41. In verse 41, it seems that Alma is trying to get our attention on something.

And so that what took us to our verse for today, or at least took me to our verse for today. Inside of Alma chapter 41, verse 13, he talking about the day coming when the Lord will return and restore that which has been sent out. And it says this: "O, my son, this is not the case, but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish; good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful." My friends, if restoration means to bring back again whatever is sent out, what are we sending out in the hopes that they come back around to us?

It appears to me inside this verse, every one of the words, he didn't swap out a synonym. He didn't use a different word when talking about restoration. Every one of these is the exact same word going out as coming back.

Evil for evil, carnal for carnal, devilish for devilish, good for good, righteous for righteous, just for just, merciful for merciful. If that's the case, how much time have you spent thinking? Because I ask this to you, knowing that I have spent time in this recently as I've been stewing on this verse.

What are the exact words that you hope to be sending out? And I don't just mean sending out, I mean to friends, to family, daily activities, to the janitor in the building that you work in, to the teller at the bank that you drop by and put your check in. Whoever it is, whatever interaction you have, what are you hoping gets restored back to you?

Because what we're seeing here is that which we send out, we get back. Now, this has been explained in pretty much every different religious philosophy on earth. So it seems that this is one of those pieces of truth that seems to just permeate everywhere.

But Alma is telling us we get back exactly what we send out. And so for today, my friends, you and I have an opportunity to identify exactly what we want to send out because that is exactly what we're going to get back. Now I mentioned Elder Gong's talk.

I want to give just a segment of his on the tail end of this episode. This was a talk that he gave for Easter, just so that you know. It's called "'Hosanna and Hallelujah, the Living Jesus Christ, the Heart of Restoration and Easter.'" It's April of 2020.

Quite an interesting time there, right? But he says this inside the talk in terms of restoration. He says: "A second promise of Easter and our Lord's Atonement is that spiritually all things shall be restored to their proper order.

This spiritual restoration reflects our works and desires, like bread upon the water. It restores that which is good, righteous, just, and merciful." Because he knows our pains, afflictions, sicknesses, our temptations of every kind, he can, with mercy, succor us according to our infirmities. Because God is a perfect, just God and a merciful God also, the plan of mercy can appease the demands of justice.

We repent and do all we can. He encircles us eternally in the arms of his love. My friends, may you and I send out the love of Jesus Christ, the light of Jesus Christ, and may it return back into our lives as well.

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.fema.org.