FAIR Resources for Come, Follow Me – Book of Mormon

1 Nephi 16–22

Week 5: January 29-February 4, 2024

“I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments”

“I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments”

FAIR Faithful Resources for Come, Follow Me 2024, January 29-February 4. 1 Nephi 16–22: “I Will Prepare the Way before You”. These trusted sources can help you find answers to difficult questions and help you in your learning and teaching.

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Main Points to Ponder

The lesson invites us to learn from Nephi how we might better face our challenges with faith in Jesus Christ. Consider looking for specific ways Nephi responds to challenges and how the Lord helped him as you read the following passages:

 

You may want to record in your scriptures or journal any thoughts you have about how you can apply these things to your own challenges. The following resources may also prove useful:

Faithful Answers to Difficult Questions

Chapter Summaries

Digging Deeper

Bite-Sized

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Saints Unscripted & Scripture Central

General Conference & BYU Speeches

From FAIR

Lesson Devotional

Christ Prepares a Way

By Craig Lindquist, Contributor
The Book of Mormon is the greatest masterclass for navigating this mortal life. In its pages we are taught principles directly from Jesus Christ, such as “I will also be your light in the wilderness, and I will prepare the way before you” (1 Nephi 17:13). Then we are taught by the stories of real people how those principles are accomplished.

We see in the lives of Lehi and his family the Lord’s hand guiding and preparing all things for their temporal and spiritual survival. We read of struggles they experienced in a land they were mostly familiar with, to prepare them for a new land they would not be familiar with. Perhaps most importantly, God gave them the Liahona with directions and teachings that were frequently updated, and He charged them to exercise faith to access the Liahona’s miracles. To us He has given the Book of Mormon with eternal directions, in addition to living prophets who update us frequently—with the same charge.

Wilford Woodruff taught us the same principle that the Lord taught to Nephi when he said we should be “thrilled with heavenly joy for what God has done for us in our generation, furnishing us, as he has done, with every facility to prepare us, our posterity, and our ancestors, for that eternal world which lies beyond the present life. The Latter-Day Saints are, in truth, a highly favored people, and praise to God should ascend from every heart and habitation in our land for the great mercy and goodness which he has shown unto us.”1

When Jesus Christ promised Nephi that He would be his light in the wilderness, He was speaking to us as well. He is not only the light that helps us see what we would not otherwise see, but He has prepared all things in advance to help us as we cross our own real and personal wildernesses.

So let us look anew at the Book of Mormon and see those men and women as friends who want to tell us of their lives. Then let us exercise faith and make the choice to believe that if God was willing and able to help them, He will do so for us. Finally, may we actively look each day to see God’s hands in our lives, and then humbly thank Him for all He has done to prepare all needful things.
Craig Lindquist of WWPapers

Craig Lindquist

Craig Lindquist is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, happily married to Dianna for the past 46 years. By trade he is a cabinetmaker, actor, and writer. He lives in Henderson, Nevada, except when he travels to film or to work on the construction of temples.

Lesson devotionals are provided by the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation. Its mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ from 1833 to 1898. It seeks to make Wilford Woodruff’s records universally accessible to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. See wilfordwoodruffpapers.org.