Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Nephi 4:17, 27

Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Nephi 4:17, 27

"Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?"

Nephi records the final words of his father Lehi before he dies. Not many days later his brother Laman, Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael are angry with Nephi, because of the admonitions of the Lord.

This is when we see Nephi morn for his father, morn for what is to come, and morn for his own iniquities. He pours out his soul to the Lord in such moving and beautiful words. I pondered on what iniquities could Nephi have. He seemed so faithful I could not think of him sinning. Then I see the sin he mentions - anger. I could just picture his brother driving him to the point he just looses his cool and gets angry back. I guess you couldn't blame him for getting angry. Isn't that part of the grieving process for all of them? I think that the reason it grieves Nephi so much about getting angry is that it destroyed his peace. Anger would make the spirit leave causing him to be so grieved.

 

Nephi is human, but from this he shows us the way to overcome our afflictions. He turns to the Lord in prayer. His words are like a song or poem, beautifully moving and inspiring, you can tell he is praying. Throughout he is repenting in the depths of humility and praising God. You see him become so full of the spirit during this process. It really is a powerful lesson on how to handle things when I get angry and need to get peace back into my life.

Day 205 Tami Fitzgerald Harris