Daily Thoughts

In the Book of Mormon we read that when we do according to what the Spirit tells us to do, we can know that it is for a wise purpose, even if we don't understand that purpose. The Lord knows all things and we can safely trust in Him.  Words of Mormon 1:7 "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will."

In the Old Testament we read about the goodness of God.  He created all things.  He showed signs and wonders to Pharaoh and parted the Red Sea. Then he lead the children of Israel through the wilderness and provided them with water from a rock and manna to eat. But after all that, the people refused to obey the commandments of the Lord and worshiped a golden calf. We might read this and think "what stupid people, disobeying the Lord after everything He did for them."  But if we examine our own lives, we likewise can find many things the Lord has done for us over the years, many blessings and answered prayers and miracles. But how well have we obeyed His commandments?  Are we always as kind and forgiving toward others as we should be?  Do we always take every opportunity to serve? Do we sometimes gossip or tell less than the truth?  Do we make excuses for ourselves? Are we sometimes self righteous, seeing the sins of others but justifying ourselves (like thinking how stupid the Israelites were for worshiping the golden calf while we worship money or power or recreation, or anything that we place above the Lord in our lives). The Lord has richly blessed us.  And all He asks is our obedience.  Nehemiah 9:6-18 "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.  Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous: And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day.  And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.  Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:  And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:  And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them. But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,  And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;"

Some scriptures with a thought booklet show Jesus commanded His disciples to go and teach all nations to observe the things He had taught them, and to baptize those they taught. To those who keep the commandments, the Lord has promised to be with them even unto the end of the world.  Matthew 28:19-20 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."