2.299 They Did Pray for That Which They Most Desired

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. If you can ask for anything from the Lord, what would you ask for? We've been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 121 through 123 and seen some of the things that Joseph Smith asked for in his prayers to the Lord.

We're also reading 3 Nephi chapters 15 through 19, a good chunk of Jesus Christ's teachings to the Nephites. Very, very deep. I hope you're enjoying the readings right now in the scriptures.

I am having a really hard time picking verses because they're just so good right now. Maybe it's just the place of life I'm at. But we're going to look at a scripture today that I think is very interesting to see from the perspective of those that were following Christ in the Nephites' time.

Let's take a look at 3 Nephi 19:9. This is the Savior and his disciples, specifically, the Twelve that he had called. And they're kind of learning how to pray, kind of following the Lord's direction and whatnot.

And we get to the middle of their prayer here. Verse 9 says, "And they did pray for that which they most desired." Now, I want to pause there. I don't usually pause in the middle of the verse, but what do you most desire when you pray?

Is it the same thing every time? Is it just a momentary thing? Do you think about your day and what you need to do?

I'll go back to the verse. "They did pray for that which they most desired, and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them." Now, I don't know about you, but I love the idea of praying regularly for the blessing of the Holy Ghost in our lives. It's almost like something that's like the gift that's going to keep giving, right? There's things we could pray for in our lives that are kind of one-time gifts or one-time events or help me get better from this sickness or something like that, right?

Where it's kind of this one-time event. But what they're praying for here is the Holy Ghost in their lives. And I don't know about you, but for me, when I think about the Quorum of the Twelve and kind of those that have talked about the Holy Ghost, for some reason, Elder Bednar comes to mind for me.

He, for some reason, maybe it's just my memory of the things he's talked about, but it seems like he talks often not just in General Conference but in firesides and other, you know, social media and stuff like that that he posts. It seems like he's trying to teach us so much about the Holy Ghost in our lives and using the Holy Ghost for revelation and for inspiration. And so I just wanted to share with you, I'll put a link in the, in the episode here. "The Spirit of Revelation," April 2011.

Elder Bednar gives us such a great beginning to his full talk. I'm only going to give you the beginning here because I want you to dive into it and see what it is for you. But he says this: "I invite you to consider two experiences most of us have had with light.

The first experience occurred as we entered a dark room and turned on a light switch. Remember how in an instant, a bright flood of illumination filled the room and caused the darkness to disappear. What previously had been unseen and uncertain became clear and recognizable.

This experience was characterized by immediate and intense recognition of light. The second experience took place as we watched night turn into morning. Do you recall the slow and almost imperceptible increase in light on the horizon?

In contrast to turning on a light in a dark room, the light from the rising sun did not immediately burst forth. Rather, gradually and steadily, the intensity of the light increased and the darkness of the night was replaced by the radiance of the morning. Eventually the sun did dawn over the skyline.

But the visual evidence of the sun's impending arrival was apparent hours before the sun actually appeared over the horizon. This experience was characterized by subtle and gradual discernment of light." Now, my friends, that's just the beginning of this talk as he talks about revelation in our lives. I love the example of the disciples here praying and asking for that which they most desired, the Holy Ghost to be present in their lives.

And then Elder Bednar's talk here on revelation and its power for us and whether it can be this burst of light like a light switch or this gradual impression on us like the dawning of the sun. My friends, I hope that you and I desire the Holy Ghost in our lives. I hope we pray for it, seek for it, aspire to have it, and ask the Lord regularly to have it in our lives.

I know we're richly blessed when we are following its promptings. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.