Saturday, August 1, 2015

1 Nephi 4:7

7  Nevertheless I went forth, and as I came near unto the house of Laban I beheld a man, and he had fallen to the earth before me, for he was adrunken with wine.
     "Nevertheless, I went forth,...
            -this going forth in the face of our own doubts is HUGE, it is key to qualifying for the Lord's      blessings.
            -this is KEY to being delivered from a trial, finding success in a struggle, or resolving any matter where we desire assistance from heaven.  We can be assured that most often our decisions and circumstances will be resolved only after we have moved toward an end and faced the fear and uncertainty of not being able to see the success and peace of the final result.  But we have to move forward even if we feel devoid of steadying heavenly hands.
·         When we, like Nephi, move ahead basing our actions on what we know of heavenly instruction, we are manifesting true and pure faith.  To the degree to which we do so, we are confessing  our love and faith.  Laman and Lemuel, whose faith was minimal, had ceased to move forward and could not be instruments in the Lord bringing about His work.  Their lack of faith rendered them useless and unable to partake in success and the joy of success.

            -there is no doubt that the Lord accomplishes His work and does what He says he will do.  Is there any more complete way in which a person could be “delivered into your hands”?!  We often do things in various degrees of competence.  We speak of doing something 100% or giving it our all.  Truth is, we often do our tasks (from being a parent to a project at school or work or to painting the house) with lesser degrees of effort and results.  How good is good enough for us: 90%, 80%, 70%?  God never fails to do his work at 100% effort and with 100% (or the best possible) results.  Should we be surprised that Laban was so perfectly “delivered into (Nephi’s) hands”?

     “he was drunken with wine.”
            -why was he so inebriated?  I suppose he might have been celebrating the large amount of wealth he had just “come into” (stole) earlier that day.  It was a tremendously profitable day for an embezzler & thief.  He is about to pay a supreme price for his crime.  The irony is that he supposed such a night on the town –in celebration of his good fortune- would bring him great pleasure.

No comments:

Post a Comment