As I was skimming my news feed on Facebook, I saw the following quote that one of my friends had posted:
"I believe that neglecting to study the scriptures on a regular basis is a form of hardening our hearts. I fear that if we persist in our course that we will be given a lesser portion of the word and in the end will know nothing of His mysteries.
"We will be able to unmask the deceptions of the devil. We will be able to discover the snares that he has laid to catch us. Drinking daily from the words of the scriptures will build spiritual strength." (Elder Teh)
My thoughts... Not studying our scriptures is a form of pride? Yes. The times in my life when I fail to study the scriptures are the times when I drift away from God, it's easier to give into Satan's temptations, and pretty soon I allow myself be acted upon instead of acting for myself. And then I wonder why I don't want to do the things I should be doing. And simply not acting for ourselves seems innocent, but really it is one of Satan's tools. It is one of the easiest ways for him to get us without us even realizing it.
This quote was exactly what I needed to hear today. I had been recently thinking about my weakness in this area of my life and how I need to improve, but this pierced me. I went to the original talk in which this quote came from. It was given at a devotional at BYU-Hawaii on March 22, 2011. It is entitled, "Holding Fast to the Rod of Iron" and was given by Elder Michael J. Teh of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
As I listened to this devotional, many thoughts came to mind. I felt as though I was reminded of the importance of daily scripture study in a very powerful way. In a way that I desperately needed reminding.
Toward the beginning of Elder Teh's talk he quotes Alma 31:5, which reads:
"And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."
In the conclusion of Elder Teh's talk he said, "We can do better in using more effectively this powerful weapon that God has given us." It all of a sudden became very clear to me tonight that daily study of the scriptures is one of the most powerful weapons we have been given to fight Satan, and I am not taking advantage of it like I should be. I thought about the use of a sword in a physical battle. I would never go into a war with a sword and leave it sheathed. But how many times do I get up and face Satan without my sword? Why would I choose to fight Satan without my weapon? Complacency.
Elder Teh said, "There are those of us today who have started on the path and held fast to the rod of iron. Unfortunately, as we have gone through one, or perhaps two or three of these 'mists of darkness,' we become complacent because we survived. We begin to think that we already know enough and do not need to continue 'clinging to the rod of iron.'" That's exactly it! "Because we survived." Then we go onto survive again. And we grow more complacent to the point where it becomes easy to think we are simply not progressing, although the reality is if we aren't going forward we are going backwards. Elder Teh said, "When we determine that we have received enough and we feel that we are at a level that we are comfortable, we will begin to slide back. In the principle of eternal progression, there is no staying in one place. We either move forward or slide back."
Being comfortable is generally a scary place. Because we think we are safe, but Satan knows that is when we are vulnerable. And then he creeps in and sometimes we don't even notice.
In essence, we have been given a sword, which is not just any sword, but one of the best. That sword is daily study of the scriptures. As we form the pattern of studying the word of God every day, we will recognize Satan and his deception and lies and not fall for them. Instead, we will be able to overcome Satan time and time again, and he will not have power over us. We cannot live our lives passively. We must be aggressive to avoid his traps. We must wield the sword we've been given.
