Yesterday, Today and Forever

So I have this goal on my mission, to read the Book of Mormon 4 times the first year, and then 4 times the next 6 months.  It's been tough!  But I've learned a lot about the Book of Mormon.  I finished it about a month or so ago.  This past week, I started over. 
I have to admit-I didn't have the best attitude about it.  I thought, "I've read 1 Nephi so many times!  I should just skip over it."  I wish that had not been my attitude-because as I began to read, I had an entirely new perspective on the verses I was reading.  I learned that God really is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In 1 Nephi, chapter 17, Nephi is commanded to build a ship by the Lord.  His skeptical brothers, Laman and Lemuel, mock him for trying to build a ship.  He tells them that the Lord has asked him to build this ship so that they can leave the wilderness and travel to a land of promise.  They ridicule him and continue to mock him.  Nephi relates to them the experience that Moses had with the Israelites as they were being led out of Bondage from Egypt. 

Nephi tells his brothers, "And they did harden their hearts from time to time, and they did revile against Moses, and also against God; nevertheless, ye know that they were led forth by [God's] matchless power into the land of promise" (verse 42).  He counsels them to NOT harden their hearts-but to listen to the Lord.  They again mock him.  I can't imagine Nephi's pain as he says, "O, then, why is it, that ye can be so hard in your hearts?  Behold my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained...If the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?" 

His brothers, Laman and Lemuel, then feel the power of the Lord upon them, and come to Nephi and say, "We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us."  His brothers begin to worship Nephi-but he turns them away.  In his humilty, he admits that he is just a man, and that they must worship the Lord their God just as the Israelites were asked to worship the Lord their God. 

I love this story-and it has opened my eyes to a new understanding about the Gospel.  As I read this, I thought about the people I am in contact with daily.   Many of them believe the miracles in the bible and believe that there once was a prophet.  But they have a difficult time when it comes to modern revelation, modern miracles, and modern prophets.  I have often wondered why that is.  When I read this chapter in Nephi, I began to see a correlation.  Even Laman and Lemuel struggled to have the faith, as we all often do, to believe that God is the same Yesterday, Today, and Forever.  Nephi tries to relate ancient scripture to his brothers, hoping that it will help them to understand that God is a God of miracles, and a God who will lead them to a far better land of promise.

I am grateful for this specific chapter because of the light it sheds on basic principles of the gospel.  The Lord will never turn himself away from his children.  It would not make sense if he just stopped giving us revelation when we are ready to receive it-so let's receive it!  When we search the scriptures for questions, the Lord will show us the things that we are ready to learn throught the Holy Ghost.  This is how he has always shown us the way to each of our individual land of promise.  As Nephi said anciently, "He leadeth away the righteous into precious lands.  He ruleth high in the hevens for it is his throne, and this earth is his footstool.  And he loveth those who will have him to be their God."