Day 30 - Jacob 4-5

The Nephites observed the Law of Moses because it 1) was a commandment and 2) pointed their souls to Jesus Christ. We too have such compasses in our day to keep our souls pointed to Christ. Daily prayer and scripture study, finding opportunities to share the gospel, Sabbath Day observance, temple worship, and many more. As Jacob continued to teach: these observances, as well as the witnesses of prophets, increase our hope and strengthen our faith.

Regarding the admonition to take counsel from the Lord, Elder Boyd K. Packer and President Harold B. Lee have some admonition of their own:

"Some among us would rather criticize the Lord and His church than concentrate on the problems. That is a symptom of impenitence.

“Follow the Brethren.… If you don't understand a problem or a position of the Church, restrain your tongue. Check the mote in your own eye before you criticize.… There is nothing in your lives that will destroy you if you will follow the Brethren. Enough evil doesn't exist in the world, even if it were brought together and focused on you, to destroy you except you consent to it." (Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower, p. 158)

“Mark well those who speak evil of the Lord’s anointed, for they speak from impure hearts. Only the ‘pure in heart’ see the ‘God’ or the divine in man and accept our leaders and accept them as prophets of the Living God…

“I want to bear you my testimony that the experience I have had has taught me that those who criticize the leaders of this Church are showing signs of a spiritual sickness which, unless curbed, will bring about eventually spiritual death. I want to bear my testimony as well that those who in public seek by their criticism to belittle our leaders or bring them into disrepute, will bring upon themselves more hurt than upon those whom they seek thus to malign. I have watched over the years, and I have read of the history of many of those who fell away from this Church, and I want to bear testimony that no apostate who ever left this Church ever prospered as an influence in his community thereafter." (President Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, October 1947, p. 67.)