1 Nephi 9-10

(January 9, 2015)

                Once again, my mind was drawn to the absolutist language of the scriptures here – this time to the phrase that he who diligently seeketh shall find.  There is no middle ground here – there is no room for someone who diligently seeks the Lord but doesn’t find Him.  Yet, in our day-to-day actions and language we seem to almost hedge on this.  We try to explain away why someone can say they didn’t find the Lord when they diligently sought Him (do we do this because we lack faith ourselves?).

                No, the truth is that if we haven’t found Him it is because we haven’t diligently sought Him.  I can say this not only from the clear language of the scriptures here, but also from my personal experience.  I have, at times, sought the Lord in the wrong place (justifying myself in the process) – but I wasn’t really seeking the Lord but rather my own nightmare image of Him, and I wasn’t searching diligently either.  But each and every time I went before the Lord and admitted that I didn’t know Him, but I wanted to find Him (who He truly was) and I would do whatever He asked me to do, I have found Him.  Every single time.