Elder House and I had an opportunity to share a 7 minute talk each on Sunday. I was struggling as always with a subject I believed all would benefit from. I began every study I had with prayer asking for help to know what I needed to speak on. Elder House seemed to know very quickly what he would speak on, The Scriptures. It was a great choice because the youth speaker right before Elder House spoke spoke on using the scriptures too, so it all worked out.
Saturday night I was feeling pretty sick, and had still not truly decided on a subject to speak about. When we went to dinner I had remembered something I had read form the Book of Mormon during my personal study that morning. So I used it as a chance to teach that family about blessings. When Elder House and I got home later that night I went back to that same scripture. That was what I needed to speak on. I knew it. So I began thinking of how I could use it and came up with a few things with the Divine help of a much higher power, God himself.
The scripture is Alma 44:4-5
4. Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.
5. And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us—
I thought about the hard things that we go through in this life, and how they shape and refine us. However, I though about blessings and how we gain true and lasting happiness through living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just like the Armies of the Nephites in the story in the Book of Mormon. They had the Armies of the Lamanites surrounded, and Captain Moroni at this point was telling Zerihemnah and his armies why they had fallen into the Nephites hands. It's because they did what they were asked by God and they relied on him. Rely on God. If we rely on him and do the things he asks we will always be happy. The love of God will spread itself abroad. The love of God bring Joy to the soul. 1 Nephi 8:10 says: And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. But what was the fruit? If you remember, Nephi had a great desire to see the thing that his Father Lehi had seen, and because of his faith he was able to see. The fruit is the Love of God, Which is most joyous to the soul.
So always do all you can to do the things you know you should. That's what brings happiness. Not doing things we know we shouldn't. I bear that testimony to you. I know it's true.
Love, Elder Goff.
No comments:
Post a Comment