3.103 Put Your Trust in God

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Are you stuck? Down? Depressed?

Feeling like you can't get out of where you are? This week is your week. These readings are for you.

And for all the others who maybe are feeling pretty good right now, you've got a week ahead of you too. There's some amazing things inside of Exodus chapters 14 through 18. I do apologize for my voice this week as, locally here, it is the season with pollen, and I've got a little bit of a stuffy nose and scratchy throat, so I do apologize for that, but Savory Salt goes on.

Our reading this week, as we look at Exodus 14 through 18, has been quoted through scripture. It has been made into Hollywood movies and cartoons. It has been shared for millennia.

It is the story of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. But before we get there, there are several pieces of this story I want to capture throughout this week. So, I promise, we get to the crossing.

But first, these pivotal pieces here. This moment was shared inside of the Book of Mormon several times, which is a kind of a Book of Mormon evidence. I love that Nephi quotes it.

He certainly knows his scripture, but we also see it throughout the Book of Mormon as well. We're going to look at Limhi today, for example. Alma also quoted this.

And you see this story as this pivotal moment: if these children of Israel can be saved by the seas parting, what could the Lord do for you in your life? Then we get to our verse for today, which is actually going to come from Mosiah chapter 7, verse 33. This is Limhi and his people, and they too are in bondage in this part of the Book of Mormon.

Now, timeline is fascinating to me, as this is about 500 years in from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, and yet here Limhi is quoting the story of Moses. Those brass plates that Nephi went back to capture certainly came in handy to help these people know their past. Limhi, in speaking to his people and talking to them about this moment in time with Moses and the Lord, then gives them what I believe to be a recipe for all of us to get out of our stuck, slavery, bondage moments.

Let's take a look at Mosiah 7.33. But if you will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in Him, and serve Him with all diligence of mind, if you do this, He will, according to His own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage. My friends, what does it take for us to put our trust in God?

I believe there's a recipe here, one that you and I could spend some extra time in. Did you notice there that there's some steps, some pieces that we need to put together on our side of things? What does it mean for you to turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart?

That could be a whole adventure just this week. Just focus on that. And then put your trust in Him.

A lot of times I find myself and I'm like, I know I'm trusting, I'm trusting, but what does it mean? What do my actions say? What do my behaviors say?

What do my prayers say as I put my trust in the Lord? And then that third piece: serve Him with all diligence of mind. There, another fascinating realm we could spend some time studying.

My friends, I believe Limhi is calling on his people to put these ingredients in the recipe and turn to the Lord. I see the story of the children of Israel and the parting of the Red Sea as this combination here. We are also going to look at other aspects of the story this week, but I wanted you to start off this week putting your trust in God.

So wherever you spend your time and study, hopefully you put on the lens where you can see how you turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. We hope you are too.