Daily Thoughts

In the Book of Mormon we read that if we'll cast aside our unbelief and hardness of heart, and turn to the Lord with a contrite spirit, then great and marvelous things will be revealed to us.  Ether 4:15 "Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel."

In the Old Testament we read about how Manasseh was very wicked and did so much evil and caused his people to sin that the Lord allowed him to be captured by the Assyrians who carried him to Babylon where they afflicted him. This humbled him to the point that he turned to the Lord and repented.  The Lord answered his prayers and brought him again to his kingdom in Jerusalem.  Manasseh then took away the strange gods, repaired the altars of the Lord, offered thank offerings, and commanded his people to serve the Lord.  From this we see that it is possible for even a very wicked person to repent and turn his life around, and the Lord will forgive him.  2 Chronicles 33:9-16 "So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel."

Some verses with a thought booklet talk about how the Lord appeared to Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh so that he could bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.  The people had been praying to the Lord to deliver them from their oppression in Egypt and the Lord answered their prayers, but he sent a person to be the instrument through which His deliverance would come.  Very often our prayers are answered in this way--the Lord send a person to help answer our prayers.  And sometimes the Lord send us to be the answer to somebody else's prayers.  But we have to be in tune enough to realize what we're supposed to do and obedient enough to be willing to do it.  Exodus 3:6-10 "Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."