Verse two has caught my attention this morning. The Spirit of the Lord says to Nephi, "Behold, what desirest thou?" I suppose that could be altered to something like "Here am I, what desirest thou?" Which would make sense, especially since Nephi is gazing upon the Lord. That interestingly phrased question might also mean, "Before you is what you ought to desire, what do you desire?" I have occasionally heard invitations to pray by the Spirit, or in other words to let the Spirit guide my prayers. I often thought it odd that I should let God tell me what I wanted, needed or should pray for.
As I have grown in maturity, I've discovered that the quality of our answers is completely dependent upon the quality of our questions. Would it not make sense to let God guide our questions then? Could it be that the Lord's oddly placed behold was an invitation to select a slightly different question than what Nephi intended to ask? Maybe Nephi had come in prayer with a notion or two about his father's dream that were incorrect assumptions. Perhaps the Lord knew that if Nephi asked the wrong questions he might come to the wrong conclusions. Anyway, right or wrong about the wording of that sentence, my thoughts have guided me to seek the Spirit more diligently, in the questions I ask, the blessings I seek and the desires I select.
With the vision comes responsibility. Nephi is told he must be a witness. By implication, and later by action, Nephi accepts that calling. What a blessed thing to witness the glorious life of the Master. At the Detention Center, one of my Councilors often shows the video Finding Faith In Christ. As we get a new batch of kids every six weeks or so, my friend shows us that video every couple of months. Over three years that amounts to around 18 times I've seen it. Every time I feel the Spirit confirm it's truth to me as I watch the glorious events of the Savior's life unfold on the video screen. How the quality of that video presentation compares with what Nephi saw remains a mystery to me; but, in a very real and poignant way, I have been privileged to "see what (Nephi and his father) saw. Seeing that video, in the company of the Holy Ghost, at least to a degree, can and in my case has, had the same effect as Nephi's vision.
More and more, I am thankful to live in this day and age of freedom, technology, ease, information, Priesthood and restoration. I rejoice that in ways we do not adequately appreciate, we can envision the life of the Savior in ways never before possible. Like Nephi, though I do not know the meaning of all things, I know He loveth his children.
6 comments:
Your comments on verse 2 of this chapter were very timely. I had just finished reading them this morning as my husband hung up the phone after listening to a disappointing phone call concerning a possible job.
We have been trying, through our current season of unemployment -- my husband's first since he was 12 -- to pray only for what the Lord wants for us. However, this morning, after that phone call, I printed out the first two paragraphs of your remarks on Chapter 11 and asked my husband to read them, so we could talk about whether or not we truly know what the Lord desires of us or even what we desire of Him. It has been good for us to ponder both more deeply today.
October 27, 2009 9:11 PM
Heavenly Father and his word are so very good to us. I almost deleted my post to start over because I thought my ponderings about the awkward placement of one word was a bit of a stretch. Bless you both. These economic times are tough aren't they.
6. …because thou bbelievest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired.
I noticed that Nephi was shown because he believed and answered because he asked. Each of these things were given because he first prepared himself. There is greatness in store when we are prepared to receive it.
First, I'm so glad you didn't delete that posting. I needed to be able to read it right at that moment -- and probably just as you had written it! (Isn't it interesting how the Lord helps us help each other!)
On another topic, where did you find that beautiful picture of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus? I've never seen it before.
If you click on the photo, or for that matter, any other I borrow, you'll be taken to it's file on the web. Then if you look at the URL line on the browser, you can see where it came from. I usually, just do a quick Google photo search for something I like.
Maybe, I'm not going far enough to give credit to my photo sources.
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