1 Nephi 19:18
How to Remember
What
18 And
I, Nephi, have written these things unto my people, that perhaps I
might persuade them that they would remember the
Lord their Redeemer.
Why
Nephi
wanted his people to remember the Lord so they could know the plan
of salvation and understand it so they could follow his teaching and
live worthy lives to return to Him again. They were slow to do this.
Reading
the scriptures and pondering them is how we can remember Him. We
must first learn of Him and feel the spirit so we can remember Him.
Pattern
Mosiah
13:29
18 And
I, Nephi, have written these things unto my people, that perhaps I
might persuade them that they would remember the
Lord their Redeemer.
Ether 10:2
2
And it came to pass that Shez did remember the
destruction of his fathers, and he did
build up a righteous kingdom; for he remembered what
the Lord had done in bringing Jared and his brother across the deep;
and he did walk in
the ways of the Lord; and he begat
sons and daughters.
Helaman 5:9
9
O remember, remember,
my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people;
yea, remember that
there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only
through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come;
yea, remember that he cometh
to redeem the world.
Doctrine and Covenants 10:70
70
And now, remember the
words of him who
is the life and light of the world, your Redeemer, your Lord and your
God. Amen.
Ether 7:27
- 15 Nevertheless, when that day cometh, saith the prophet, that they no more turn aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember the covenants which he made to their fathers.
27
And there were no more wars in the days of Shule;
and he remembered the
great things that the Lord had done for his fathers in bringing them
across the great deep into the promised land; wherefore he did
execute judgment in righteousness all his days.
3
And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with
many afflictions, yea, except he doth
visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all
manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.
Moroni 4:3
3
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus
Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those
who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of
thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they
are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and
always remember him,
and keep his commandments which hehath
given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them.
Amen.
2 Nephi 9:41
41
O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy
One.Remember that his
paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth
in a straight course before him,
and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel;
and he employeth
no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate;
for he cannot be
deceived, for the Lord God is his name.
Christ
“Remember
The Lord Their Redeemer”. This verse is all about remembering Him.
Conference
10/07
Pres. Henry B. Eyring
O
Remember, Remember
It
won’t be easy to remember. Living as we do with a veil over our
eyes, we cannot remember what it was like to be with our Heavenly
Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in the premortal world; nor
can we see with our physical eyes or with reason alone the hand of
God in our lives. Seeing such things takes the Holy Ghost. And it is
not easy to be worthy of the Holy Ghost’s companionship in a wicked
world.
That
is why forgetting God has been such a persistent problem among His
children since the world began. Think of the times of Moses, when God
provided manna and in miraculous and visible ways led and protected
His children. Still, the prophet warned the people who had been so
blessed, as prophets always have warned and always will: “Take heed
to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things
which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all
the days of thy life.”3
And
the challenge to remember has always been the hardest for those who
are blessed abundantly. Those who are faithful to God are protected
and prospered. That comes as the result of serving God and keeping
His commandments. But with those blessings comes the temptation to
forget their source. It is easy to begin to feel the blessings were
granted not by a loving God on whom we depend but by our own powers.
The prophets have repeated this lament over and over:
“And
thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts
of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great
infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in
him.
...
“Yea,
and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea,
in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in
gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every
kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the
hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that
they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing
all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is
the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord
their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and
this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.”
And
the prophet goes on to say: “Yea, how quick to be lifted up in
pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is
iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and
to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s
paths!”4
Sadly,
prosperity is not the only reason people forget God. It can also be
hard to remember Him when our lives go badly. When we struggle, as so
many do, in grinding poverty or when our enemies prevail against us
or when sickness is not healed, the enemy of our souls can send his
evil message that there is no God or that if He exists He does not
care about us. Then it can be hard for the Holy Ghost to bring to our
remembrance the lifetime of blessings the Lord has given us from our
infancy and in the midst of our distress.
There
is a simple cure for the terrible malady of forgetting God, His
blessings, and His messages to us. Jesus Christ promised it to His
disciples when He was about to be crucified, resurrected, and then
taken away from them to ascend in glory to His Father. They were
concerned to know how they would be able to endure when He was no
longer with them.
“But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”5
The
key to the remembering that brings and maintains testimony is
receiving the Holy Ghost as a companion. It is the Holy Ghost who
helps us see what God has done for us. It is the Holy Ghost who can
help those we serve to see what God has done for them.
Heavenly
Father has given a simple pattern for us to receive the Holy Ghost
not once but continually in the tumult of our daily lives. The
pattern is repeated in the sacramental prayer: We promise that we
will always remember the Savior. We promise to take His name upon us.
We promise to keep His commandments. And we are promised that if we
do that, we will have His Spirit to be with us.6 Those
promises work together in a wonderful way to strengthen our
testimonies and in time, through the Atonement, to change our natures
as we keep our part of the promise.
...Tonight,
and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the questions:
Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my
life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will
find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that
I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we
need Him. I testify that He loves us and blesses us, more than most
of us have yet recognized. I know that is true, and it brings me joy
to remember Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Apply
If
we really remember Him we will show it in our actions as we follow
His teachings.
I
like the statement by President Eyring that tells us that receiving
the Holy Ghost as a companion is the key to remembering Him. As we
take the sacrament and promise to always remember Him then He
promises to remember us so we can always have his spirit to be with
us.
There
is no greater blessing than that.
Hymn
183-
In Remembrance of They Suffering
190-
In Memory of The Crucified
children
71-to
think About Jesus
