The Scriptures Spoke to Me
Elder Robert D. Hales said “when we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures” (Ensign, November 2006).
Have you had an experience in which God spoke to you through your scripture study? If so, please share it by commenting at the bottom of the page.
At Education Week one year I asked several youth if they had had an experience in which they prayed and asked a question and then searched their scriptures and found an answer. Below are some of the responses I received.
- I was trying out for a drill team and trying hard to make it. But the girls on the team weren’t the best role models and they didn’t have good standards. But I thought it would be fun. I felt in my heart that I shouldn’t try out for the team. I was praying and reading the scriptures. I read a verse that talked about listening to the promptings of the Spirit and then realized that I shouldn’t be on the team. My friend did get on the team and it was awful…people were drinking and it was a very bad environment.
- I was dating this boy who was not a member and it was really hard because I liked him. His family is anti-mormon which made it really awkward. I was always scared and my mom told me to read the scriptures and find an answer. I went into my closet and prayed and had my scriptures and paper and pen. The first revelation I had was to clean my closet because the spirit can’t be there in this mess. Then I turned to Moroni 8:16 and it talked about perfect love and how perfect love has no fear. I realized that I was always afraid when I was with him and if I had real love it wouldn’t be there. That happened a few times that night where I found a scripture that directly spoke to me. It was hard getting over him and I’d keep having ideas to go call him and then scriptures would come into my mind about how with God anything is possible and I felt that God is taking care of me and he loves me.
- There was a family in my ward that I really admired. But the family went inactive and there was a young woman in the family about my age. I wondered what I should do to help her. I turned to the scriptures. Every time I opened I opened the scriptures it turned to a letter. At first I thought it was just cause I was opening to the middle of my quad and the epistles. So then I opened in the Book of Mormon and it was a letter from Moroni to Pahoran, and then I opened to the Old Testament and it was a letter from the captain of an army to another captain. I then realized that the Lord was telling me to write her a letter.
- There was a person in my ward who was missing and we prayed to know how we could find him. We opened the scriptures and found a verse about going “from house to house.” That’s what we did, and we found him!
- I was kind of doubting my self-worth. I prayed and opened the scriptures to D&C 25 and read about being “an elect lady.” I really felt the love of the Lord for me.
Please share your experiences!
This past year there has been a lot of trouble in my family and just some issues that have been difficult to deal with. One night that I was studying my scriptures, I was angry at a family member who had been causing many of the issues. I didn’t really even want to study the scriptures because I was so irritated at this person. However, I felt that that was the most important thing that I could be doing. Anyway, I was studying scriptures linked together by footnotes in the scriptures. Somehow I ended up in the Old Testament and although the scripture that I was looking for did not have any particular insight, I noticed that there was a marking on one of the following pages. I turned to that page and read the note that I had at some point made in the margin (that I don’t remember clearly why I wrote it). It said, “Is it benefiting anyone, you being angry?” I read the scripture that was next to it and it was about Jonah being angry with someone and the Lord rebuking him for it. The message was very clear that just being angry was not doing any good for any one. I knew then how important it was to pray to repent for being angry and pray for things that I could do to improve the relationship and how I could influence this person’s choices. This is not the first time that the scriptures have directly applied to me. It’s so true, as Elder Hales says, that we talk to Heavenly Father through prayer and He talks to us through the scriptures. We’re so blessed to have the scriptures…I know that I definitely need to take more advantage of the instructions the Lord has given us in them.