God Answers Questions

I want to focus my next few entries on one of the most important events in history: the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For today, I want to discuss the situations and mentalities of key people who allowed this restoration to be brought to pass.

As I was studying I noticed a few key words that Joseph Smith used to describe his experiences leading up to his seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Disillusioned by the “strife of words and a contest of opinions” and “the confusion and strife among the different denominations,” Joseph Smith turned to the only source where things were written plainly and straight forwardly: the New Testament. He read James 1:5, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” God can teach us whatever we need to learn when we ask him; he does not want to hide truths from us. Rather, he wants us to know that we can learn truths and we should aspire to learn.

Of course we cannot expect to just ask God things without us doing what is required of us. If Joseph Smith had been sinning a ton and did not care to learn from God, he would not receive the revelation necessary to start the restoration. However, as we continue to read in his history, he uses a few key words and phrases that reflect what we should do when approaching God with a question.

1. “It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart.”- reading it is what made him internalize it entirely. It is like when you discover something new- a hobby, a book, a TV show- and you cannot turn away from it.

2. “I reflected on it again and again”- Once it was in his heart, he found himself thinking about it. I imagine he thought of all the possible things he could ask God, and if God would really answer his prayers

3. “knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did”- Just the fact that Joseph Smith felt the need to ask God shows that he has a strong sense of wisdom. Yet he recognizes that he is missing so much. He shows amazing amounts of humility.

4. “At length I came to the conclusion”- Through the preceding steps he realized that he must ultimately choose to just ask. We see that he had the choice to dwell and think about it, and through that realized that he was having a stupor of thought and that he could not figure it out on his own.

5. “Ask of God” – Finally the last step is to ask God once he was entirely prepared.

These five steps came as a result of his desire to learn the truth and his learning scripture. I believe that God will answer our questions when we, through dedication and study, show God that we will listen.