Epistle - 6.2.10

Good Wednesday Everyone!

 

Todays epistle will be dedicated to my dad! He loves little spiritual thoughts and thinks that he can ponder and study, so I'll share something that hit me yesterday during a district meeting.

 

It comes from the book of Helaman, 10th Chapter, 4th and 5th verse:

 

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

  5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

 

Now normally when I've heard people read these verses. I normally hear a comment to the effect of "Wow, Nephi is so amazing that God says he won't ask anything contrary to the Lord's will, so anything he says will be the Lord's will!"

 

But a new thought hit me this time, the Lord does NOT say "Thou WILT not ask that which is contrary to my will", no, he says "Thou SHALT not ask that which is contrary to my will". That is not a statement or prophesy, that is a commandment. It is worded in the same way the Lord worded the ten commandments, "Thou shalt not..."

 

Now just to see if I was interpreting the language correctly I flipped to the foot notes, and found this, D&C 46:30:

 

30 He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh.

 

I interpret "asking the Spirit" to mean asking for things as the Spirit directs you, basically receiving revelation from God on what we should pray for. To me this seems to agree with the idea that the words "Thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will" is not, in fact, a statement necessarily about the character of Nephi, but a commandment to Nephi, that if he follows he can receive the blessing of having all of his prayers answered.

 

So there's my pondering today, maybe the rest of you had already realized that, but new idea to me!

 

On to updates about life,

 

Jaymie's baptism went wonderful, he asked me to perform the ordinance, and I couldn't talk him in to getting one of the members to do it, so this is the second time I got in the water during my mission. I prefer members to do that so they can have that experience with someone more permanent, but when I am asked to do it, it is a very neat experience to perform that ordinance. What fun.

 

The zone activity today was a blast. We ended up with softball about half the time, a couple games of Ultimate Frisbee, and then we had to flee the heat for lunch. All in all everyone was happy and a very good time!

 

I hope you all are having a wonderful time!

 

Till next time,

 

Elder Ted E. Bear