8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?
9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.
10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?
11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?–If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.
Laman and Lemuel sound pretty foolish in this passage: “We didn’t ask the Lord because He wouldn’t have answered us anyway.” Yet how often are we guilty of the same kind of reasoning in our day-to-day lives? The fear of rejection runs deep, and we have a tendency to avoid making requests of others when there is a reasonable risk of failure. Besides, it sounds like Laman and Lemuel had made similar requests of the Lord previously, without success. As Nephi explained, it takes more than just asking. We need to ask in humility and faith, believing that we will receive an answer, and we need to keep the commandments.
In my personal prayers today, I will inquire in faith, believing that the Lord will reveal to me the things I need to understand.
Reminds me of the Lord’s response to Oliver Cowdery when he wanted to translate (“You took no thought save it was to ask me.”)
That’s a great connection! Thank you for sharing it!