Formulating Life-Guiding Principles From Scriptural Phrases

The Lord told Jeremiah that we should not glory in our wisdom or in our might or in our riches. Rather, He said, “let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (see Jeremiah 9:23–24).

The Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) taught, “God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them, for the day must come when no man need say to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord; for all shall know Him … from the least to the greatest.”1

Just as we learn how to feed ourselves physically to sustain our bodies, we must learn how to feed ourselves spiritually to sustain our spirits.

President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, taught: “Spiritual self-reliance is the sustaining power in the Church. If we rob you of that, how can you get the revelation that there is a prophet of God? How can you get answers to prayer? How can you know? If we move so quickly to answer all your questions and provide so many ways to solve all of your problems, we may end up weakening you, not strengthening you.”4

President George Albert Smith (1870–1951) explained: “I fear that as members of the Church we depend too much upon the auxiliary organizations, and upon the advice and counsel of those outside our own households. We have already heard of many of the blessings that the Lord has given to us in the sacred records that have been kept until our day, and that contain the advice and counsel of an all-wise Father. It seems strange that so many of our people … lack familiarity with the contents of these sacred records.”5

I enjoy learning the gospel at church, but I get more excited about the gospel when I discover inspired insights during my personal study. There is nothing more thrilling to me than finding a small treasure of truth in the scriptures that enlightens my understanding and fills me with the Spirit of the Lord.

Gospel study is much like learning to paint. It is not intuitive or natural for everyone. We would not think of giving someone a paint palette and expect that person to become an artist immediately. Becoming a self-reliant gospel learner is the same. We can’t expect to discover great insights on a regular basis if we haven’t learned some basic gospel-study skills. President Packer explained that the scriptures “contain the fulness of the everlasting gospel, an eternity of knowledge. But one must learn to use them or the search will be discouraging.”6

That’s how it was for me—discouraging—when I first tried to find meaning and guidance from my scripture study. So I began to analyze how the speakers got their insights. It took a while, but I eventually saw how they extracted specific statements of doctrine from the scriptures; how they mined meaningful teachings about the Savior from the verses; how they formulated life-guiding principles from scriptural phrases; how they interpreted symbols; and how they connected the teachings of prophets and apostles to specific verses of scripture.

Self-Reliance and Gospel Learning, David B. Marsh, Priesthood and Family Department of the Church, Ensign June 2017