Hard to understand, save you should inquire of God...

In 1 Nephi chapter 15, we read one one of the dozens of times that Nephi's two elder brothers, Laman and Lemuel, hear a wonderful and spiritually uplifting sermon from their father only to criticize the counsel and the Lord for not being able to understand the teachings...

Nephi hears them out and them asks them, "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"

As I was thinking about these lessons (because there is a very good reason that the first book in the Book of Mormon is so chuck-full of great and easy-to-understand lessons--because every single reader has started-over and read the first 10-or-so chapters an almost infinite amount of times!), I had to stop and ask myself:

Am I willing to ask the Lord for help?

The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding "yes" when it comes to things that I find important or things that I would like to have happen... BUT I think that more often and all-too-often I choose to simply let my own brain figure out the answers instead of asking for help from the Lord!

I'm not saying that "the mind" isn't a wonderful thing, capable of an infinite amount of marvels, but only that I feel that I am guilty of "trusting in the arm of flesh" and having the object of my faith be my own body/brain...

How many more things would you think that I would be able to do if I would just ask and trust that the Lord will shine his light down on His child? Is my "not asking" a form of ingratitude? Am I really faithful or in some ways am I not "holding myself back" by not letting my Heavenly Father shine down his gifts onto me?

Aren't you guilty of the same thing, but maybe in a different way?

Jesus Christ has told us, over and over and over that (in fact, it is the most used phrase in all of scripture, quoting the Lord...):

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Matt. 7:7, Luke 11:9, 3 Ne. 14:7, and Doctrine and Covenants 42:62)

Need I be afraid to ask?

JPS