1 Nephi 17

Remember the song "Nephi's Courage" I mentioned in a previous post? First it mentioned Nephi's going and getting the plates, then it mentioned his building of a boat. Chapter 17 is were Nephi's building of the boat occurred. It's also where his brothers murmured and wanted to kill Nephi, again, causing Nephi to give quite the speech to them while filled with the Holy Ghost.

Reading it, you side with Nephi. But there may be times when you read it and realize that you may have more things in common with Nephi's brothers then you thought. One of the things Nephi said to them was:

Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder (45).

Are there times when you can quickly justify an act you really shouldn't do? Or perhaps justify why you shouldn't do something you really should do? It might not be something dramatic or huge in the grand scale of things. But it's still something that could tip that grand scale the wrong direction.

Maybe you have that thought to visit a neighbor on the way home from class or work, but you justify your not visiting by saying you don't have the time, they're probably not there anyways, and they wouldn't want to talk to you even if they were. Now this isn't something terribly bad or any such thing, but when you start frequently ignoring such thoughts and promptings to do good, you are building calluses on your heart and becoming hard-hearted and past feeling. Soon you might begin ignoring other bits of inspiration.


Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said:

“I fear that some members of the Lord’s Church ‘live far beneath our privileges’ with regard to the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some are distracted by the things of the world that block out the influence of the Holy Ghost, preventing them from recognizing spiritual promptings. This is a noisy and busy world that we live in. Remember that being busy is not necessarily being spiritual. If we are not careful, the things of this world can crowd out the things of the Spirit. 

“Some are spiritually deadened and past feeling because of their choices to commit sin. Others simply hover in spiritual complacency with no desire to rise above themselves and commune with the Infinite. If they would open their hearts to the refining influence of this unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, a glorious new spiritual dimension would come to light. Their eyes would gaze upon a vista scarcely imaginable. They could know for themselves things of the Spirit that are choice, precious, and capable of enlarging the soul, expanding the mind, and filling the heart with inexpressible joy” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2003, 27; or Ensign, May 2003, 27).

We should be careful in not developing callused hearts past feeling. We should turn to the Lord and have better communication with our Father in Heaven so we can be guided to do what is right and live well-satisfied, joyful lives.