If there was a way for you to be healed, spiritually healed, and it was pretty simple, say, reading a part of a book every day and doing what it taught, would you do it?
Here is what led me to these thoughts. In my scripture study today, I had started studying the Book of Mormon again (get your free copy here). I reread part of the introduction, which I rarely do. Well, Joseph Smith, who translated the Book of Mormon, said: "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on the earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book" (Introduction of the Book of Mormon). To get nearer to God by abiding by the precepts, which is "a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct" (precept) is a very powerful promise. I would love to get nearer to God by reading from a book and follow its teachings...sounds pretty simple.
Another question: If a prophet of God said you could be saved from a poisonous snake bite by just looking up at a serpent on a pole, would you do it? Well, in the Bible, Moses was told by God to, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8). The Israelites had been complaining against the Lord for the food they had, the location they were in, and the way they were going. Symbolically speaking, they were on a crooked path. So, the Lord "sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died" (see Numbers 21:6 (4-6)). In the Book of Mormon, we get even more of the story.
"And He did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten He prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way or the easiness of it, there were many who perished" (1 Nephi 17:41). All they had to do was look! And because it was so simple, some chose not to look and there were many who perished. How sad is that?
Well, I go back to my first question. If you could be healed by doing something simple, such as reading out of a book and then applying its principles daily, would you do it? We have been promised by a prophet of God that we would "get nearer to God by abiding by [The Book of Mormon's] precepts, than any other book". For me, drawing nearer to God heals me. I have days where I murmur and complain about the food I have, or the place I am- whether it is spiritually or physically, I sometimes get discouraged. There are days when I feel like I have "fiery serpents" all around me, biting we with dark thoughts or negativity, and I am poisoned. But, to be healed...I just need to look. And some days, I have to look more than once.
And on those days when I look, which I try to do every day, I am healed. All the prophets, past, and present, testify of God's healing power and the reality that Jesus is the Christ. One prophet taught, "And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal" (Helaman 8:15). What a promise- if we would look upon the Son of God with faith we would live, even unto that life eternal. I want to live today. It feels so good!
As the Book of Mormon prophet Alma said to his son Helaman, I also say to you and to myself: "O my [friend], do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so it was with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we look we may live forever" (Alma 37:46). I have learned from my own experience, that looking to God, even reading from The Book of Mormon on a daily basis will help heal and draw us nearer to Him than any other self-help or do-it-yourself book. This I testify.
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| Moses and the Brass Serpent, by Judith Mehr |
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