1 Nephi 5-7

(January 7, 2014)
Building on my thoughts about Laman and Lemuel, and their unwillingness to be convinced and converted, we have the perfect example of this point in Sariah.  Sariah’s comments to Lehi were just as stinging as Laman’s, and she clearly lacks the faith and testimony of Lehi and Nephi at this point.  But when her sons return – when she comes to understand that the Lord is behind this work – she is converted and we don’t read very much about her complaining thereafter.  She holds a position, but when the Lord shows her to be wrong she is humble enough to change her views.

The other thing that I picked up in today’s reading was the text of Nephi’s prayer when he was bound.  My earlier readings of these verses always focused on the way the Lord answered his prayer – he prayed for strength to burst the bonds, but instead the Lord merely loosened them to allow him to escape.  In a similar fashion, often our prayers are not answered in the way we pray for them to be answered – but they are answered nonetheless.

But this time I focused on the language of Nephi’s prayer in what he was asking for.  He asked the Lord to give him strength according to his faith.  This seems a simple idea, but there is meat on these bones.  It acknowledges in the prayer that Nephi is weak and incapable on his own, it acknowledges that Nephi has faith and trust in the Lord, and it acknowledges that the strength that Nephi will receive it not his own but is instead a gift from the Lord.