Feast upon the words of Christ
The first two books of Nephi begin and end so quickly, there is so much there on those 117 pages, and then you get to this weeks chapters and don’t want Nephi’s story and testimony to end. Nephi inspires me, he endured a lot … a lot; backbiting, death threats, and held the family together during some seriously challenging times. But hey, the reverse of his challenges were simply amazing experiences that can seem not even real, like escaping king Laban, escaping his brothers, single handedly providing for his family in a desert, building a ship, and successfully arriving in the promised land, and all this before he was maybe 30 years old. After a life’s work Nephi plainly wanted us to know a couple very important things: to Feast and to Pray.
It is an interesting dynamic at our house when its prayer time. We are usually good at praying together at meal times a then before bed. My kids don’t always enjoy prayer time, or Come Follow Me for that matter, but they know that if they offer to say the prayer then they are in control of the situation. One thing to know about my wife is that she heartfelt, gratitude filled, and my kids would say “very long prayers.” Whenever I call on my wife to say the prayer I immediately get a couple kids to volunteer to say it instead. Sometimes I indulge in their exuberance and excitement to say the prayer… shake my head… but my wife and I know why they do it. Other times I insist on my wife saying it in order for them to learn the proper way to address their Father in Heaven, …and because even I am not a stellar example. Nephi said,
8. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
9. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.
2 Nephi 32:8-9
It’s a powerful testimony from Nephi, prayer was the one thing that he had, by choice it seems, to pull himself out of some debilitating situations. He always turned to prayer, I don’t get the feeling that prayer was his last resort either, it is very evident that from reading these books that prayer was his first stop and was confident in sending his problems heavenward.
In 2 Nephi 31, Nephi wants the things he says to be very plain, so much so that he uses the same word various times to emphasize his point. He explains that Gospel of Jesus Christ in very plain terms. Nephi teaches that Jesus Christ would come to take away the sins of the world and provides us all an example to follow. We are to have Faith, Repent of our sins, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and then to Endure to the end.
I have always sort of had a negative connotation of the phrase “Endure to the End,” to me its not very well defined, and … not very fun sounding. As we grow up we look forward to turning 8 and getting baptized and then look forward to getting married in the temple. Once all the ordinances are done, then what?
I remember being recently married and in a ward where we served in the primary. An older sister, that seemed to love her class and being a primary teacher, told us that if she counted all the years she had been called as a primary teacher that they would total 36 and that she wouldn’t trade them for anything. I mention this sisters long and extensive service not to correlate primary to enduing to the end, but to answer the question, “what do we do while we endure to the end.” The answer to this question was not quite clear until I read the following:
He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.
2 Nephi 31:12
One other nugget I discovered while reading 2 Nephi 31:4, at the end of the verse it reads, “…that should baptize the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world.” I thought about baptism, that is cleansed us from sin, and makes us clean. I realized that in reality baptism opens, or unlocks, the gate to the straight and narrow path leading to Eternal Life. The Atonement is what actually cleanses us of sin. Jesus was perfect, he did not have sins, he didn’t need baptism to cleanse him from sin, he needed it to open the gate, the same gate that is opened for us on the day of our baptism. Jesus set the perfect example, to be sin less and to do as the Father has commanded.
I really love the Book of Mormon, it is a absolute treasure, I love the scriptures and the words of living prophets. Nephi’s experiences and powerful testimony help me realize what really is important and what truly does make us happy in mortality. Nephi said
…Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
2 Nephi 32:3
They really do, they tell you what to do, they tell you to keep the commandments, to be baptized, and pray unto the Father in the name of His Son for the welfare of your soul.