2 Ne 11:8 Now
these are the words (of Isaiah), and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men
Nephi teaches us how to get personal
benefit out of the scriptures. The scriptures often speak to individuals who
were in very different situations than ours, but the principles of the gospel
and the fruits of righteousness are the same. We should, therefore, study the
scriptures with the intent to apply them to our lives, to imagine that the Lord
is speaking directly to us, and to respond to our callings as the prophets of
old did.
¡°Gospel
principles do not tarnish with time, nor do they apply with greater effect in
one day than in another. The Lord has
said, ¡®What I say unto one I say unto all¡¯
(D&C 93:49). The art of gospel
teaching is to make timeless principles timely.
Nephi did this by taking those prophecies that were made to the entire
house of Israel and specifically applying them to his own family, who are part
of the house of Israel.¡± (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the
Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 149)
Gene
R. Cook
¡°It
is absolutely essential to apply the scriptures to yourself¡¦[when] we¡¯re
searching to apply them to our own hearts is when they really come alive¡¦If you
really want to come unto the Lord, if you really want to draw close to Him and
find out how He is, how He works, how He thinks, what He counts to be important
and what He doesn¡¯t, you¡¯ll find it in the scriptures.¡± (LDS Church News,
Deseret News, Nov. 19, 1988)
Brigham Young
¡°Do
you read the Scriptures, my brethren and sisters, as though you were writing
them, a thousand, two thousand, or five thousand years ago? Do you read them as
though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them? If you do not feel
thus, it is your privilege to do so, that you may be as familiar with the
spirit and meaning of the written word of God as you are with your daily walk
and conversation, or as you are with your workmen or with your households.¡± (Discourses
of Brigham Young, p. 128 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book
of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p.63)