As a student at BYU I have the chance to take religion classes. Currently I am enrolled in a Book of Mormon (a book revered as scripture by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes mistakenly called the “Mormon Church” by friends of other faiths) class. We are studying from the book of Jacob and we came across this verse in chapter 4, “Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice.” After reading this verse the class had a discussion about how we pray. Oftentimes when we pray we are asking the Lord for specific blessings, at a specific time from the Lord. We feel as if we have specific needs from the Lord, and we know that He can help us. This is true; He can help us when we come to Him seeking answers to our problems.
Prayer is a time for us to learn what the Lord wants us to do as well as a time to ask Him to do things for us.
In class we discussed how maybe we should take a different approach. Maybe instead of asking the Lord to answer our prayers and help us achieve our goals, we should ask Him to help us know what He would have us do. This connects to the above scripture. When we have problems, we should counsel the Lord and tell Him how to solve our problems. We also should approach Him and ask Him what He wants us to do. Instead of asking Him to help us achieve a certain goal or result we would like to achieve, we should be asking Him what He wants us to do with our lives. This attitude will help us achieve more and grow faster than trying to figure life out on our own.
Like the scripture states, the Lord counsels in wisdom and justice. He is always watching out for us, and He knows exactly what we’re going through and how to help us. God has created worlds, and has infinite knowledge. Who better could we be dependent on? From before the creation God had a plan for each and every one of us. He knew exactly what challenges we would face and how to help us.
In the chapter 5 of Jacob, the Lord is talking and He says three times, “What more could I have done more for my vineyard?” This chapter is a giant analogy comparing the people of the Lord to a vineyard. By repeating this phrase three times, it makes it a Hebrew form of the superlative. This means that the Lord could not have done anymore to help His people. He has done everything that He can, and the rest of it is up to us. We are responsible for coming to Him and seeking His counsel so we can make correct choices. The Lord always has His hands outstretched waiting for us to reach up and take His hand. He is always there to help us, especially if we come to Him asking what He would have us do. When the world is changing and uncertain, we have the best hand to fall back on. He will never fail us, and is the one sure place to put our trust.
This article was written by JeriAnn W., a student at Brigham Young University and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.