Something that stood out to me during my personal study in
the scriptures this week was 1 Nephi 8: 8-9. It says, “And
after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray
unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the
multitude of his tender mercies. 9 And it came to pass after I had prayed
unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.”
One of the things that is a part of my scripture study goal
is underline in my scriptures whenever it mentions someone from the Godhead. For
example, God, Jesus, Lord, Father, Spirit, Holy Ghost, etc. I underlined “Lord” twice and noticed that
even before Nephi sees the vision of the great and spacious building he was
praying. I can imagine that Nephi was
frightened for walking in the darkness for so long and the only thing he could
do was pray. Only after his prayer was he able to see the great vision of the
tree of life. I wonder if he had prayed
earlier he wouldn’t have been lost in darkness for such a long period?
I know that the principle of prayers is real and that in the
times we least want to pray that is when we must pray. Just like Nephi came out
of the darkness we too can come out of the darkness. We come out just by having
a simple conversation with our loving Heavenly Father.
