I remember a time in my life where I found it very hard to keep the commandments. I had the desire to keep them but I still found it hard to and failed occasionally. While this was happening I read this scripture in Alma 37:33 that says:
“Teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ”
    What I liked about this is that I learned the secret of how I could keep the commandments even though I faltered - it was through my faith.
    I wrote on top of that scripture:
“Have faith that YOU can keep the commandments”
    I had never thought about faith in that way. I knew that if I had faith I should keep the commandments but I never thought that I should have faith in myself to keep the commandments. The Lord promises that we won’t ever have a temptation more than we can handle. The Lord promises us that the Atonement can work in our lives. The Lord promises that we can have a change of heart. The Lord makes all of these promises that hinge on us keeping His commandments. If that is the case and the Lord keeps His promises how is it that I can’t keep the commandments.
    I noticed that afterwards when temptation would come instead of trying my hardest to avoid it I would think about this scripture and have faith that I can keep the commandments even though it is hard. It was this faith that helped me out a lot and helped me come closer to the Savior.
    I realized that faith is action. When I had faith that I could keep my commandments what started out as a thought turned into the action of keeping the commandments.
    Next time I am ever in a situation where I feel tempted to break the commandments I will think about how I can keep the commandments and because of this faith and the power of the Atonement I will be able to keep the commandments.

Although this was a short chapter with a lot of mention of the wars going on I was able to learn a lot from it. My favorite part was verse 8 which says, "and the people began to repent of their iniquity; and inasmuch as they did the Lord did have mercy on them."
I feel like the Lord is always extending His mercy towards us and I am constantly being reminded of it. It feels as if the Lord wants me to know that whenever I mess up I always have another chance. Jesus Christ is not one for second chances but infinite chances. We can always repent it if we repent and turn to him. To me that is a joyous truth to know that I can never mess up more than the Savior can save me.

It has been a while since that I have posted and hopefully I will be able to keep posting daily. My goal is that as I post daily my scripture study will also be daily. Not only that but having this as a scripture journal I will be able to have a more in-depth scripture study.
One verse stuck out to me - a lot. It was verse 9. It says, "and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth." It made me think that even the earth shall be born again and become perfected. The Lord's goal is that all of his creations will become perfect even as He is. If I try and submit myself to His will I will be able to become new even as the Earth will.

This chapter has a lot of instructions on how to properly run the Savior's church. What stuck out to me was in verse 5 where it said that the members of the church would meet and talk with each other about the welfare of their souls. I wonder why we do not do this in the church more.


I think that it would be great if when talking about a gospel principal for people to be able to stand up and say, "You know - I have a problem with this and I have tried fixing it before and nothing has worked for me. What do you guys think I could do better?" Then people would be able to give advice and help each other out. I think that we would not only be following the advice from Moroni but we would be more able to help each other out as a congregation. I also feel that there would be less judgement all around because everybody loses their "I'm not as perfect as Jesus but I am pretty close."


The next part I liked was in verse 8 when they discussed forgiving the members of the church. It is so beautiful to read that "as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness...they were forgiven." The Savior will truly forgive us 70 times 7.


A teacher of mine at BYU-Idaho helped me learn this concept. He said, "You cannot out-sin the Savior." When the Lord said that his atonement was infinite he meant it. You will never be able to sin more than what the Lord had suffered for you. You will never be lost. There is always hope where there is faith.


This makes me remember that Jesus Christ is merciful and loves each and everyone of us more than we can imagine.

1. I need to help all the members of the church be nourished by the Word of God