2.247 Whom I Give a Promise

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 do we do when the Doctrine and Covenants seems to get so specific to one person in history? We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 94 through 97 as well as Alma chapter 62 and 63 and Helaman chapters 1 and 2.

You know it's inside of these verses and it's happened several times. I'm going to read a passage from the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price. And it led me down a different line of thinking, and I want to get to that conclusion here on the backside of sharing the verse with you.

So our verse for today comes from Doctrine and Covenants section 96 verse 6. It says, "And again, verily I say unto you, it is wisdom and expedient in me that my servant John Johnson, whose offering I have accepted and whose prayers I have heard, unto whom I give a promise of eternal life, inasmuch as he keepeth my commandments from henceforth." And then it keeps going a couple more verses for this sentence. And honestly, I could have picked any verse, at least for the message I have today, where it names someone specific.

This one's specific to John Johnson that the Lord is giving direction to. There's several times inside of Doctrine and Covenants where we read these and we're like, "What are we supposed to do with this?" Right? Like, at least I do.

I read it and I go, "Well, I'm glad that John was named and that he's getting direct revelation from the Lord, but what does it mean for me?" And it gave me pause to the times that I sit down and go back through my own personal patriarchal blessing. And as I've done that recently, I actually kind of went into the church website and noticed that inside of them, there's a tab inside of the church website when you log in to be able to go through family members' patriarchal blessings. I think it is part of a project that the Church is trying to do to kind of link those.

But what you can do is you can go and submit for your direct family lineage to be uploaded, and you have access to be able to read through their patriarchal blessings as well. And that took me down the line of reading both my dad and then my mom's patriarchal blessings, who, if you've listened to this podcast, you know that over the last couple of years, I've lost both of my parents as they've passed away. While reading those patriarchal blessings, I saw the promises of the Lord through their lives as their lives had come to an end on this earth here.

I looked back and I thought, I wonder if I can see whether my parents kind of lived—I wasn't trying to grade them by any means—but like, did they live their patriarchal blessings? Did they see the blessings they promised in their lives? And it was quite a My friends, the Lord, just like he has done in Doctrine and Covenants with specific names and specific actions for those individuals to take, has provided for us a way to receive that counsel and guidance as well through patriarchal blessings.

I am grateful for the opportunity that I've taken in my life, and I'm grateful for the time that I did it in my life. So, for I was about 18 years old when I sat down and sought to have a patriarchal blessing. My dad was younger than me.

My mom was older than me. She didn't receive her patriarchal blessing until she was actually married. And yet the counsel inside of there and the promises are so personal to them.

I see some of how their lives turned out, especially in terms of the blessings as I read them. My friends, I hope that you and I can take, whether it comes from Doctrine and Covenants, or whether it comes from direct and personal revelation, or whether it comes through a patriarchal blessing, I hope we can take the direction from the Lord and apply it in our lives. The Lord will give us all the counsel and direction we seek if we would just seek him and follow his commandments.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.