A Repeated Invitation for 2021

This morning I read President Nelson’s invitation to us for 2021 in the January edition of the new Liahona. He said this: “Because of the increasing dangers we face, our need for divine guidance has never been greater, and our efforts to hear the voice of Jesus Christ—our Mediator, Savior, and Redeemer—have never been more urgent. As I said shortly after I was called as President of the Church, the Lord is ready to reveal His mind to us. That is one of His greatest blessings to us. In our day, He has promised, ‘If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge’ (Doctrine and Covenants 42:61). I know He will respond to our pleadings.” This of course is a familiar topic for him as he has emphasized our need for personal revelation repeatedly since becoming the prophet.

He gave us several specific invitations for how to hear Him: “First, we immerse ourselves in the scriptures. Doing so opens our minds and hearts to the Savior’s teachings and truths…. Next we pray. Prayer requires initiative, so we humble ourselves before God, find a quiet place where we can regularly go, and pour out our hearts to Him…. Then we listen. If we will stay on our knees for a while after we finish our prayer, thoughts, feelings, and direction will come into our mind. Recording those impressions will help us remember what actions the Lord would have us take.” These are of course the simple daily patterns of worship that we already know but perhaps fail to always do with the level of devotion and sincerity that true communion with the Lord requires. Sometimes even then we may feel like we aren’t hearing the voice of the Lord despite these efforts, and President Nelson suggested a potential cause: “Refining our ability to recognize the whisperings of the Holy Ghost and increasing our capacity to receive revelation requires worthiness…. If something is stopping us from opening the door to heavenly direction, we may need to repent.” I have found that to be true for myself—when I know I need to repent because of something I have said or done or thought, the Spirit leaves a knot in my stomach for my failings and no other messages can get in until I repent.  

This principle is also highlighted in the famous story of the Prophet Joseph when trying to translate as told by David Whitmer: “One morning when he was getting ready to continue the translation, something went wrong about the house and he was put out about it. Something that Emma, his wife, had done. Oliver and I went upstairs and Joseph came up soon after to continue the translation but he could not do anything. He could not translate a single syllable. He went downstairs, out into the orchard, and made supplication to the Lord; was gone about an hour—came back to the house, and asked Emma’s forgiveness and then came upstairs where we were and then the translation went on all right.” What impresses me most about this story is the detail about the length of time he was gone. Joseph didn’t go say a one-minute prayer and then return. Rather he spent an hour outside supplicating the Lord for forgiveness when he realized he had sinned. That is a significant amount of time to focus exclusively on repenting. Perhaps that is a clue for the kind of sincere seeking and repenting that we need to do to really make ourselves in tune with the Lord and right before Him.

If repetition of gospel principles is a sign of their significance, surely the fact that President Nelson has invited us again and again to seek to improve our ability to receive revelation underscores its utmost importance for us. The Lord’s promise to us awaits our sincere efforts to receive it: “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:63).