SEARCH, ponder, and pray.
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