I have personally learned it’s actually much more difficult to ask questions to God in prayer than we often think it is. ⁣

It’s like the classic example of Nephi asking Laman and Lemuel: “Have ye inquired of the Lord?”⁣

And the two brothers answer with: “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” (1 Nephi 15:8-9⁣)

When a question pops into our brain, it can be tempting to think that the Lord will let us know the answer if that is His will. ⁣

But we learn time and time again from the examples of prophets and other faithful saints that we have to ASK.

And it takes a lot of faith to ask because that means we are expecting a response. ⁣

We are expecting a response and then we are going to actually act on the answer, whatever direction it takes us. ⁣

This is one reason I love these question-and-answer sections in the Doctrine and Covenants this year. ⁣

Section 113 is a lovely example of someone reading the scriptures, feeing confused… and then doing something about it!⁣

Taking the time to formally write out questions, taking them to the Lord in prayer, and then expecting responses, which vary in their length and clarity. ⁣

Everyone has questions. ⁣

Whether they are big, foundational questions, or smaller “I don’t understand what this means” questions, they matter to the Lord. ⁣

He will send His spirit to teach us truth. ⁣

But first… we have to ask.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Faith to ask questions  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I consider myself pretty strong at math.

And I truly wanted to learn each element of calculus.

But I had to ask a lot of questions as I learned how to do calculus.

The problem was that my high school teacher was never clear in her responses to questions.

I’d ask questions in class, meet with her at lunchtime, or send her an email, and yet I always left our sessions feeling more confused than when I first went in.

Every question seemed to lead to a tangent or a vague explanation.

It was honestly so frustrating.

I vented to my mom about how confused I felt, and she told me to call my grandpa, who had been a math professor.

After asking my grandpa just a few questions and listening to his responses, my brain was finally calm and clear.

I was learning!

I understood concepts.

I could accurately solve problems on my own.

I felt relieved.

I think about young Joseph Smith, trying to get his own answers to spiritual questions.

But he was left feeling quite frustrated.

In the Restoration Proclamation, we read:

“He had questions regarding the salvation of his soul and trusted that God would direct him.”

Can you imagine?

Asking the basic questions of the soul and not finding any sort of satisfactory answer?

The apostasy was a time of spiritual confusion.

It was a time where everyone had the same questions and yearned for truth but could not get correct answers.

Joseph felt this himself.

And at the right time, God used Joseph to bring much-needed clarity and relief to his children.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Calculus class first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Why does it matter that we have living prophets and apostles on the earth today?⁣

Why does it matter that we receive continued revelation in our lives?⁣

Honestly— someone asked me these questions recently and it took me a bit to figure out why I felt all of these things were so important.

I want to share what I think, but I also invite you to ponder about your own responses.

I believe the answer is because the gospel is alive and relevant!

We have a LIVING Savior with LIVING prophets and REAL-TIME guidance from the Spirit.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ care about us right now, living our lives.

They care about our “modern” problems.

⁣The Savior can offer us grace right now!

Sometimes when we read about Christ living 2,000 years ago, it’s easy to keep Him 2,000 years ago in our mind.

Just like the prophets we read about in the scriptures, we keep Him in the time period where we read about His stories.

Sandals. Walking in Galilee. Robes.

Jesus isn’t with everyone else we’ve read about who has since passed on.

He is alive!

“And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5)

He rose from the dead so He could be on our journey with us as much as He was on the streets in Jerusalem.

I’m grateful for a living Savior, with living prophets, with ever-present personal revelation that can help me in my immediate times of need.

So what help, guidance, love, or impressions do you need today?

It’s all available right now in this living gospel!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Three important questions  first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Every time I would think about it, I would get panicky or sad or frustrated.

So I just tried not to think about it.

I kept pushing it down.

But it kept bubbling up and making me frustrated and overwhelmed all over again at very inconvenient times.

I was on edge.

And I didn’t have any time to deal with it.

Then one night, I couldn’t sleep.

I was feeling in a real funk, so I decided to pull up the scriptures on my phone and start reading a bit.

I honestly could not even tell you which book of scripture I pulled up.

Because as my eyes scanned the words and my finger scrolled, my mind wandered.

It wandered back to my big concern.

But this time, it felt different.

I gave myself permission to just think about it.

I thought about my concerns in detail, I cried over what I was sad about, I logically thought through different options and paths forward.

I formally addressed Heavenly Father every once in a while, but my mind just kept going for the most part.

I just… pondered.

And then I fell asleep.

And the next morning, I felt so… calm.

So content. So peaceful. Even, happy.

It didn’t make sense though.

The concern was technically still there.

I didn’t have a clear answer, an obvious path forward, an elimination of every tough part.

But I truly, deep down, felt content.

“Pondering often precedes contentment.” —Neal A. Maxwell

I believe that with all my heart.

It’s something I can’t really explain very well. It probably doesn’t make sense to the rest of the world.

“Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

Pondering.

Without distraction, in communion with God, inviting the Spirit…

It is powerful.

And pondering has changed my life.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Unexplainable pondering first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

There were tons of different powerful concepts she touched on, but one that I loved is that it takes FAITH to ASK QUESTIONS.

I’ve written posts similar to this concept before, where I talk about how I’ve learned it’s actually much more difficult to ask questions to God in prayer than we often think it is.

It’s like the classic example of Nephi asking Laman and Lemuel: “Have ye inquired of the Lord?”

And the two brothers answer with: “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” 1 Nephi 15:8-9

When a question pops into our brain, it can be tempting to think that the Lord will let us know the answer if that is His will.

But we learn time and time again from the examples of prophets and other faithful saints that we have to ask.

And it takes a lot of faith to ask because that means we are expecting a response.

We are expecting a response and then we are going to actually act on the answer, whatever direction it takes us.

This is one reason I love these question-and-answer sections in the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

Section 113 is a lovely example of someone reading the scriptures, feeing confused… and then doing something about it!

Taking the time to formally write out questions, taking them to the Lord in prayer, and then expecting responses, which vary in their length and clarity.

Everyone has questions.

Whether they are big, foundational questions, or smaller “I don’t understand what this means” questions, they matter to the Lord.

He will send His spirit to teach us truth.

But first… we have to ask.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Asking questions with faith first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

I recognized that I felt pretty uneducated about the subject, because most of the “knowledge” I had was what some leader had taught me in class, or what I read in a blog post one time.

So I went on a search for knowledge and truth from the best sources that I could find.

And I actively tried to ignore anyone else’s perspectives or interpretations, no matter how right they sounded.

My search brought me to 4 places, essentially.

The scriptures.

General Conference manuscripts.

The plethora of other church-produced materials provided on the church’s website.

And prayer.

I stuck to those 4 locations.

I searched a lot. I pondered a lot. I took it slowly.

D&C 88:118 really touches my heart and reminds me of this time in my life.

Here, the Lord teaches:

“Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”

I didn’t read my answer anywhere written in stone.

But eventually, I had as much knowledge as if it had been.

I prayed and had promptings and felt the spirit whisper to me enough that I realized I knew at least portions of the answers I had been seeking.

And I felt a deep, eternal, and confident peace in the things I still didn’t know.

That was hard sometimes for my brain to wrap itself around– the fact that I didn’t find my answer explicitly hidden somewhere.

Instead, I had to also use faith to fill in some of the spaces.

But deep down, I was just as sure in my knowledge as if I had learned it through any other way.

Knowledge and wisdom are out there. It’s hard to imagine that someone hasn’t already discovered the truth and I can just google enough that I can find it.

With the real, deep stuff, I’ve learned to rely on my own judgment, to be led by the Spirit to the best sources.

And then to let my faith step in for the rest.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post The best books first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

To me, it’s the answer to these two questions:

Why are we told to ask and knock, and we will receive, when not all of my questions or requests are actually answered?

And…

How am I supposed to make my prayers more about aligning with God’s will instead of just listing off my thanks and requests?

The Lord teaches pretty succinctly in D&C 46:30:

“He that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh.”

The Lord is teaching specifically about requesting more spiritual gifts, but I think this applies perfectly to any request we have of Him.

The answer is the presence of the Spirit.

When I have the Spirit with me as I pray, I know what to pray for.

I had a very powerful moment in my life where I went to pray for someone’s healing, but I suddenly knew NOT to pray for healing, and to pray for comfort of loved ones instead.

And I had a very powerful moment in my life where I went to pray to accept the outcome, no matter what it was, but I suddenly knew that I SHOULD pray and request healing.

It’s hard to explain.

It’s those quiet whisperings of the Spirit that lead me toward asking the right question, and confirming in my heart that I am knocking on the right door.

But when I’m saying prayers without requesting the presence of the Spirit, or not living worthily to invite His presence, then I end up asking questions that aren’t ready to be answered yet.

It all comes back to the Sacrament for me.

That is such a serious covenant that I renew each week.

I always want His Spirit to be with me.

And so I try to always remember Him and keep His commandments.

My prayers have night-and-day differences when I have the Spirit with me.

And one of the biggest blessings is that I know what to pray for.

My will starts to be swallowed up in the Father’s will.

And the spiritual gifts that I request and seek after are given to me as I work hard to obtain them.

I knock, and it’s opened. Because I have the Spirit with me to let me know I’m at the right door.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Asking in the Spirit first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

Assuming you’ve been in a classroom in your life, I bet you know what would usually happen.

The two kids who always asked questions would raise their hands and ask a few questions, and everyone else would smile and look super confident…

But I knew some of them were confused.

I’m not sure why they didn’t raise their hands.

Maybe they were embarrassed to be confused. Maybe they were anxious to speak up. Maybe it just isn’t cool to raise your hand.

The Lord reminds us gently in D&C 1:26, “And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed”.

This is one of the reasons I’m so psyched to be studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year:

Because virtually every revelation, or “section”, is the Lord’s response to a question.

The Doctrine and Covenants is NOT filled with moments where Joseph Smith was busy hanging out with a friend and then the Lord intruded into his thoughts with a powerful revelation.

It doesn’t have the Lord interrupting Joseph while he was completing a business transaction.

It doesn’t have Joseph Smith seeing heavenly beings while he was in the middle of completing a different project.

Time after time, the Lord responded to Joseph Smith’s questions.

So… we have to be “that kid” in class.

The one who asks the questions. The one who is okay with being confused. The one who is curious and ambitious in our spiritual progression.

We can’t be too cool to care.

We have to be curious, and we have to ask.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post “That kid” first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.

What does it mean to search the scriptures?

We’ve been commanded to search the scriptures diligently, and yet I know that I am guilty of ignoring that main verb.

But some of my most powerful spiritual experiences have been when I’ve opened my scriptures with a sincere question in mind.

When I’ve looked up topics and followed footnotes and jumped from page to page.

Because I was searching.

Searching for answers, searching for love, searching for God.

But let’s be real, this is sometimes a tricky commandment to fulfill when we are stuck in “checklist” mode, or “reading schedule” mode, or “a chapter a day” mode.

(These modes are not bad in and of themselves at all, and can still lead to beautiful personal revelation.)

But the freedom and excitement of opening the scriptures with a question in mind, and then SEARCHING for an answer that you know will come, is powerful.

I love how we focus on approaching General Conference with a specific question in mind.

And we have full trust that we will receive at least part of the answer to that question throughout the sessions.

And I think we can use that same strategy with our scripture study.

No matter the book, section, or chapter, we can have full trust that we will receive an answer.

I’m always shocked at the specific direction that I find in the pages of the scriptures.

So what’s your question you are wondering right now? Big or small.

Follow Mormon’s counsel in 3 Nephi 10, and go search for it!

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post What does it mean to SEARCH? first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.