Ether 3:3

Behold, O Lord, thou hast smitten us because of our iniquity, and hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock.

Just because God doesn't solve all our problems instantly does not mean he is angry with us. We mortals might punish out of anger, but God gives us challenges to help us grow because he loves us. Mahonri Moriancumr's problem with light is about to become the greatest blessing in his life.

Ether 3:14

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.

What a magnificent statement of the purpose of Jesus Christ! From the very beginning, before the world was created, he was selected to be the centerpiece of the plan of salvation for the entire human family. He is both the Creator (the Father) and the Redeemer (the Son). His promise is to all mankind to redeem them if we will believe in him and become his sons and daughters.

Ether 3:12-13

And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.

When we truly know that God does not and cannot lie, when we know for ourselves that he has worked out the atonement for us personally, and when we believe him when he says he can save and exalt us, we will be redeemed from the fall like Moriancumr, Enos, Nephi the first, Nephi son of Helaman, and a host of others. We can have our calling and election made sure by the testimony of Jesus Christ himself through personal revelation. The experiences of the prophets in the scriptures are not to taunt us with unattainable goals, but to testify that such goals ARE attainable. Christ does not want to save us just in the hereafter, but in the here and now. This life is not just the time to prepare to meet God, it is the time to receive a proper introduction.

Ether 2:25

And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?

God would not stop the winds, waves, and floods that would make the Jaredites' voyage so perilous, because those very forces would propel them to the promised land, but he could prepare them to withstand the storms. God likewise will not remove every challenge, affliction, and trouble from our lives, for the opposition we face causes us to grow and propels us towards God, but he can prepare us and strengthen us not only to survive but to succeed.

Christ can still the storm around us, but usually he chooses to still the storm within us. We want instant answers, quick fixes, and immediate relief, but God wants us to become saints, and that is a process that takes time. He is there for us, cheers us on, and provides instruction and a helping hand through the roughest spots, but he will not do for us what we have to do for ourselves. He loves us too much to rob us of our ultimate victory by removing our temporary inconveniences.

Ether 2:24

For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.

We cannot avoid the trials of life. They are part of God's plan. He has sent them to be part of our experience. We need the water, waves, currents and winds to move our clumsy boats in the direction of the promised land. Without them, we would be stalled high and dry, unable to progress. Life might be pleasant sitting on the deck of our little boat on the top of a mountain for a while, but we would be going nowhere, and eventually we would get bored with the monotony. We are designed to travel in bad weather, to be buried from time to time, and to withstand the rigors of the gales and storms of life. In the midst of the raging fury, we must trust God's plan and know that he will raise us up to the surface from time to time so we can see the progress we are making.

Ether 2:17

And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish.

The repetition of "dish" emphasizes how tight and seaworthy the vessels were and the expert preparation that had gone into them. No way was the brother of Jared going to let even a drop of water enter his barges. If we are trying to keep out the storms of Satan and protect ourselves and our families on the voyage through mortality, we need to become expert craftsmen who can make our defenses tight like into a dish in every aspect. It does little good to lock and seal the door of the seams are leaky.

Ether 2:15 - Part 2

And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him. And the Lord said unto him: I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man; wherefore, if ye will sin until ye are fully ripe ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And these are my thoughts upon the land which I shall give you for your inheritance; for it shall be a land choice above all other lands.

God is merciful and forgives sins. Jesus commanded his disciples to forgive seventy times seven, and surely the Father keeps his own commandments, so he is pretty patient with sinners. Nevertheless, he apparently has a limit to his patience. Though he is infinite, he is not infinitely patient. We can reach a point in our willful, rebellious, intentional sinning that the Lord stops inviting us and enticing us to turn to him. He does not close the door on our possible repentance, but it will be much more difficult for us to recognize and turn from our sins when his Spirit is withdrawn from us. Far better is it for us to repent daily, even though we remain weak, than to think we can postpone our repentance to the last minute. If we wait for the last minute, we will likely miss that minute and slip past the grasp of mercy completely.

Ether 2:15 - Part 1

And the brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him. And the Lord said unto him: I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man; wherefore, if ye will sin until ye are fully ripe ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And these are my thoughts upon the land which I shall give you for your inheritance; for it shall be a land choice above all other lands.

This says something about the nature of our prayers. Though we may pray daily, if our prayers are perfunctory repetitions lacking in humility, sincerity and real intent, they do not please the Lord, and we have need to repent. Prayer is not to give orders to God like a short-order cook, but to seek his will and receive instruction at his hand.

Ether 2:14

And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.

I am confident that a spiritual man like the brother of Jared would not have stopped praying for four years. I think what he had neglected to do was to ask the Lord for additional direction. He and the rest of the troop were perhaps satisfied with the good life they had on the beach. They had arrived at what to them was obviously the end of their journey on the shore of an un-cross-able ocean. With no place left to go, the easy conclusion was that they were in their promised land.

For four years they relaxed and enjoyed life. Yet something must have stirred the prophet to finally approach the Lord with a question. With the door of inquiry finally open, God took the opportunity to teach the brother of Jared about the mistake he had made.

The message to us is to not make assumptions about the Lord's will for us based on observable circumstances. God's plans for us almost always far exceed our own expectations. We ought not to limit his power in our lives by our own shortsightedness.

Ether 2:9

And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity. 

I love messages of hope, but sometimes we need to hear messages of warning. When Moroni writes about God's decrees, he knows what he is talking about. He has the record of one people who have been swept off the land of promise, and he has been eyewitness to his own people's demise. When he says a whole nation can be destroyed, he means it.

And when does the Lord decide it is time to sweep away a nation? When they are ripe -- full of the juices of apostasy and pride, self-sufficiency and greed, when they have become weighed down with the love of possessions and they bend the branches with their ponderous grasping for power, when they are soft and mushy with self-gratification. In such ripeness they fall from the tree in great bunches with hardly a breeze or a shake of the trunk. God does not have to work hard to dislodge a ripened people. They fall practically of their own accord into the natural clutches of gravity.

Moroni's undisguised message to us is that the Gentile nation he has seen on the North American continent in the latter days is ripening quickly. If we think we are invincible, we are mistaken.

Ether 2:5

And it came to pass that the Lord commanded them that they should go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been. And it came to pass that the Lord did go before them, and did talk with them as he stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they should travel.

God's revelations are not mysterious or enigmatic. He gives clear and direct instructions, which are practical and simple to follow. Simple doesn't always mean easy, but if we will ask and listen, he will tell us which way to go and how to get where he wants us to be.

Ether 1:35

And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the language of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not confounded.

God answers our prayers because of his compassion, his understanding of our sufferings, and his desire to help us.

Ether 1:34

And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words.

In this and the next five verses, the brother of Jared "cries unto the Lord" for compassion and help. The difference between just praying, which most of us do on a regular basis, and crying, which yields miraculous results, is in the intent and intensity of the experience. When we are desperate, when we have exhausted our mortal means and cannot take another step, we cry unto God.

Most days, however, we are not desperate, or at least we do not recognize how desperate we should be. Most of the time we think we have life under control. We have our routines, we work, we solve little problems, and we take our blessings for granted. Only when we are faced with a crisis -- a dying parent, a sick spouse, a rebellious child, loss of a job, or some other disaster -- do we get serious enough about seeking divine help that we finally cry unto the Lord.

I'm sure our Father understands that mortals cannot live 24x7 in utter crisis mode. Nevertheless, if we truly understood the ultimately desperate situation of mortality, we would cry every day unto God. We teeter on the brink of spiritual death every day. We need daily forgiveness in the worst way. We need grace at every step. We need the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost -- constantly.

We cannot manufacture faith or charity or any other spiritual gift. We are totally dependent on Christ for justification, sanctification, redemption and salvation. To think any other way is to be blind to reality. Yet we fumble our way through most days in total denial of our desperation.

But God is patient and kind, and he lets us have our delusion of self-sufficiency. Only occasionally does he drop a hint that we are living really on thin ice. We face an unexpected setback or a crisis and, if we are wise, we cry unto him, and in that moment we finally get out of his way so he can go to work in our lives.

Mormon 9:29

See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out.

Proper actions are important. Proper actions for the right reasons are essential. To serve God most effectively, we must be in tune with the Holy Spirit so we can receive guidance and direction, and therefore we must be worthy. Worthy does not mean perfect, but it means that we are trying in humility, constantly repenting. To act in the name of Christ is to do what he would do the way he would do it for the reasons he would do it. That takes revelation, and revelation comes only to those who are worthy.

Mormon 9:27

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

Salvation is an individual thing. No one else can work out my salvation for me. Ultimately, I cannot rely on anyone's testimony but my own. I cannot ride on the faith of others. I must be baptized for myself, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost myself, receive my own temple endowments, be sealed to my spouse, and keep the commandments. My parents' conversion is not my conversion. My wife's charity is not my charity. I can learn from the good example of others, but I cannot depend on their works to bring me to Christ and sanctify me. I must come to Christ for myself, repent for myself, exercise my own faith. Working out my salvation does not mean that I save myself. Only Christ can save me. But I have to apply to him for salvation, and that application must be personal.

Mormon 9:21

Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

If we want power from God, we begin with belief in Christ, as evidenced by our submitting to the first principles and ordinances of his gospel, which are faith and repentance, followed by baptism and the conferring of the Holy Ghost by one holding the proper authority.

We must trust with our whole heart and soul in Christ. He holds our very salvation and eternal life in his hands. When we trust him, we do not try to wrestle our salvation away from him as if we can save ourselves. No, we do not doubt in the least that he can and will redeem us.

With that trust and faith in Christ, we go to the Father in his name and ask for the help we need to strengthen and increase our faith. We ask him to change our hearts and minds from the squalor of the natural man to the humility of a disciple of Christ. Such a prayer will God always, always answer.

And his answer will be a miracle, for it is only by the miracle of the Christ's Atonement that a sinner can be washed clean and spotless.

God excludes no one from the promise of hope in this formula, to the ends of the earth and the end of time. Everyone can receive his grace. If we do not, it is only because we exclude ourselves by trying to get it some other way than how God has prescribed. He has the right to set the conditions by which we come to him. We have the choice to accept or reject those conditions. We do not, however, have the right to override the consequences of our choices.

Mormon 9:19-20

And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Moroni's indictment of our generation is unassailable. If miracles appear to have ceased among us, it us not because God has lost his power or changed his modus operandi. It can only be because we don't believe him anymore. If a person of true faith lives on the earth, God will work miracles in and through that person's life.

To be clear, faith is not restricted to Latter-day Saints, nor does every Latter-day Saint possess faith. The full power and authority of the holy priesthood resides in the Restored Church, but God works in every life to which he is invited and sought after. No one group of people has a lock on God's love.

Despite that fact, few people today believe in miracles. They believe in science, which they can touch, and attribute the rest to coincidence, luck, or the average of large numbers. They may as well live in the dark ages, where every phenomenon was attributed to witchcraft, the devil, or the alignment of the stars and planets. 
 
The antidote for living in the world without God is to choose faith and seek after him in trust. God truly has given us many scientific and technological miracles (which we, by the way, ascribe to our own brilliance and still ignore God's hand in the discoveries of laws of which he has always been the Master). These blessings he has given us out of love in spite of our weakness because he doesn't want to see us wallow in darkness. Yet he has so much more to offer! And so God waits for a glimmer of faith among us. If we can muster even the tiniest hope or a mustard seed of faith, God will nourish it and cultivate it and help it spring up unto a tree that bears fruit. And that fruit will be miraculous.

Mormon 9:11

But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

The greatest miracle of God is Christ's Atonement and the plan of salvation. God must be a God of miracles to pull off our salvation. If we don't think God does miracles, then we don't think he can save us. And if that were the case, what good is he, and what good is life itself?

Mormon 9:6

O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day.

Even the most rebellious, wicked and unbelieving can turn around. Right up to the last day they can come to themselves and seek the Lord. The pure miracle of the Christ's Atonement is that it can make even the worst of sinners spotless, pure, white, and thoroughly clean. We do not have to appear before our Father stained with our sins.  Christ holds out boundless hope for everyone. No one is lost  who will come to him and have faith in him.

Mormon 9:4

Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.

God's objective is our happiness -- however much happiness we are willing to receive.  If we want the kind of eternal joy he has, he will help us achieve it. But he will not force it on us. If we choose a lesser degree of happiness through living by lesser laws, he will grant it to us. The decision and end result are ultimately ours. God will be wonderfully merciful when mercy is warranted, and he will be just when we reject his mercy.

Mormon 9:3

Then will ye longer deny the Christ, or can ye behold the Lamb of God? Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws?

Our conscience makes us conscious of our guilt; but it also makes of conscious of the good we do. The light of Christ tells us not only what not to do but also what to do, both good and evil, things to avoid and things to embrace. Guilt is signal that we have done wrong. Peace is the signal that we have done right.

Mormon 8:35

Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.

Moroni knew exactly to whom he was writing. He has described perfectly the days in which we live, for he saw them in living color. Heavenly Father knew exactly when he would send the Book of Mormon among his children. We can take some comfort, in spite of the disasters and perplexities around us, that God knows us and our situation.  He has given us the Book of Mormon as a sign of his love. He knows us, what we need, and how to rescue us. This book is proof we are not alone.

Mormon 8:26

And no one need say they [the Book of Mormon] shall not come, for they surely shall, for the Lord hath spoken it; for out of the earth shall they come, by the hand of the Lord, and none can stay it; and it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away; and it shall come even as if one should speak from the dead.

The Book of Mormon refutes the claim that miracles do not happen in our day. Those who refuse miracles will refuse the Book of Mormon because the only way that book could come into existence is by the miraculous power of God. Do not say miracles have ceased until you have tested the Book of Mormon.