3.120 The Equation for Success with 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 you this day whom you will serve.

I call this one the equation for success with God. Because who doesn't want an equation for success? We are reading this week the end of Exodus as we go chapters 35 through 40 as well as basically the book of Leviticus chapters 1, 4, 16 and 19 in terms of Come Follow Me.

We are going to continue here with our study of the 1, 2, 3 that we've done to start off this week. We have focused on the Lord calling upon the willing, those of a willing heart. And then we saw that they came.

And then we saw that they had much more than enough because of that willingness. I wanted to show the result there in Exodus chapter 36 verse 5. But today we're going to back up just a little bit in Exodus 36 and go back to verse 1.

Because while we have the willingness of the children of Israel here, I see that verse 1 in my opinion is another piece of the equation that resulted in much more than enough. Let's take a look at it and see what we can glean from it. Exodus 36, verse 1 says this, Then wrought Bezalel and Aholiab, forgive me for the pronunciations there, and every wise-hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding, to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.

Now, this is the start. We see that these men here and many others are going to become the craftsmen of the tabernacle. And we're going to get some serious detail about the craft that they do, right?

The workmanship that they do as they design and put together the tabernacle according to the instructions of the Lord. But if you look inside of here, there's a second piece of the equation before we get to more than enough. The second piece of that equation—the first one being willingness, obviously, as we talked about earlier this week—the second one is in that phrase, "every wise man." Because it sounds like it's just this deep understanding, this person that reached a great level of wisdom.

When you click on the footnote, however, you do get a footnote inside of Exodus 36. You also get this phrase, or all the able men. My friends, for you to succeed with the Lord, the Lord is really looking for two pieces in the equation.

Your willingness and whether you're able. Now, 'able' can come in many different sizes, shapes, and flavors. Able might mean that you need to spend some more time developing a skill or a talent.

It may be time that you need to further your education, whether that's formal education in schooling or simply studying a topic better. I know that my education in the scriptures has been both inside of classes like seminary and institute and Sunday school, as well as outside of classes in my own personal study. As Nephi was taught how to build a boat that would cross an ocean.

So my friends, if these men can be instructed by the Lord on how to build a tabernacle and Nephi can be instructed on how to build a ship to cross the ocean, what is the Lord preparing you for when it comes to your abilities? If you will lean into that question, you will be able to be guided by the Spirit to know, if you are willing, how the Lord could use you inside of building His kingdom here on the earth today. So, my friends, the equation for success with God is willingness and able, 'able-hearted men'.

I love this. I want to combine willingness and ability. I want to be able to handle the things the Lord gives me and I want to be willing to do them when he asks.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.