Simple and practical tips for helping elevate your scripture study. Go from reading to studying. This month we're talking all about Jesus Christ and how to make him the center of your scripture study. I'm Cindy Young and you are watching Primarily Scripture. Last week we talked all about finding Jesus Christ. When you read your scriptures, the most important thing that you can do is to find Him. Learn everything you can about Him. This week's tip builds on that because knowing all about Jesus Christ isn't enough. Maybe you've heard this story that I heard when I was a youth. Several people were called to be interviewed by a very important person. One man in particular waited his turn, he could hear what was going on in the other room, and he heard the interviewer ask, tell me what you know about Jesus Christ. And the man being interviewed, responded that he was born in Bethlehem and he lived in Nazareth. And he taught in Judea. Mary was his mother. He was the son of God. And the person interviewing said, yes, that's all true. Great. But tell me what you know about Jesus Christ. And the man continued to think and he said, well, he taught us to be kind. And he walked on water. And he continued to list a few more things that Jesus had said and done and eventually the interview ended. Then the door opened and the man listening had a chance to go in, and immediately he fell down at the feet of the interviewer and worshiped Him because it was Jesus Christ. Now, the point of this story is that knowing about Jesus isn't enough. We have to know Him and build a relationship with Him. So that's the next most important thing that I want you to do when you are reading your scriptures. Normally, we build a relationship by spending time together, talking, getting to know each other. How do you do that when Jesus can't be here in this room with you physically? What do you do? Start by turning to the scriptures. But then this relationship has to be built in our hearts and our minds. Learning all about what He did, what He said, what He promises is the very first step. But in order to build that relationship, you need to have a conversation with Him inside of yourself. And this is a kind of work that sometimes we're not used to doing, that pondering and thinking and listening to the Spirit. So let's try it out together. This week in Come Follow Me we're reading Moses chapter 7, which is all about Enoch and the city that he built, which was called Zion. The chapter heading of Enoch, chapter seven says this- that Enoch teaches and he leads the people and even moves mountains. The city of Zion is established. Then Enoch is shown a vision. He sees that Jesus will come, His atoning sacrifice, and the resurrection of the Saints. He foresees the Restoration, the Gathering, and the Second Coming, and he sees that the city of Zion returns to the earth. So that's what Moses chapter seven is all about. And there are a lot of really great things in the Come Follow Me Manual for you to ponder and think about. Things like how do we build a Zion community today and how do we do that in our hearts? And I absolutely encourage you to look at the Come Follow Me manual and do those study exercises to learn about those things. What you and I are going to look at right now is two very specific verses that we can learn about Jesus and use to build our relationship with him. And this activity is also found on my free worksheets that are on my website, primarily scripture.com So you can go and download those for free and follow along. Let's look at verse 13. It says this- "And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course..." Now, what does that teach us about Jesus Christ? We're talking about Enoch, the prophet, and that as he spoke the word of the Lord, mountains moved and rivers changed their course. That is amazing! And something that I don't actually expect to do in my lifetime. I don't think I will ever move a literal mountain out of its place! But, isn't this how the Lord helped Enoch when they went to battle against their enemies? So if we take that knowledge that the Lord helped Enoch and his people by actually moving mountains... It was through the Prophet Enoch, but it was by the power of the Lord that it happened... Then we can ask ourselves, what battles do I need the Lord's help with? And I don't mean physical fighting battles, right? We're talking about hard things. What hard things are you going through and how could the Lord actually help you with them? How could you invite him to be that help? The Lord didn't move the mountains before Enoch spake. The Lord only moved the mountains when Enoch commanded them to. So what about you in your life? Now the strength of the relationship that you are building with Jesus Christ will depend on the amount of effort that you put into this exercise. How much are you thinking about inviting him into your life? How serious are you as you ponder this? One way that you can show the Lord that you are extra serious about this, and to focus your heart and your mind as you're pondering is to pick up a pen and a paper. When you write your thoughts, you're fully engaged in that thought process and it's so much harder for your mind to wander. So take a minute and write down the hard things you're going through, and think about what you could do to invite the Lord into your life so that he can help you with those things. You may receive unexpected inspiration for how to handle this because the Lord wants to help you through hard things. We're going to go now to verse 17, which reads this- "The fear of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the glory of the Lord, which was upon his people. And the Lord blessed the land, and they were blessed upon the mountains, and upon the high places, and did flourish." What does flourish mean? Do you know that word? To flourish means to grow, to do the very best they could. So now if we're trying to use this verse to build a relationship with Him, we can recognize what He did. What did He do for the people? He blessed them everywhere they were- in the mountains and in the high places, the land, everything. He blessed them in so many ways. How do we use that to build a relationship with Him? Well, how does it apply to your life? When has the Lord blessed you? Hit pause right now if you want to, set a timer for two minutes, five minutes, or don't even set a timer and just write down every blessing you can think of that the Lord has given to you. As you count these blessings and recognize His hand in your life, you can realize more and more how much He loves you and how many great blessings He has for you. But don't just stop at counting your blessings. Turn it into a conversation with Him. Say a prayer and tell him out loud how grateful you are for all of these things. And I would say even take it a step further and tell him why you are grateful. Have a real conversation with him. Sometimes I feel like our prayers can get a little too formal in that we follow the pattern for prayer. And we say, "Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for this, and this, and this, and please bless me with this, and this, and this. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." And then we're done. But because we're trying to build a relationship with him, maybe we can make the language of your prayers very specific. Why are you grateful for them? How did the Lord actually give these things to you? If you know you can tell Him that you recognize it, and it turns into this conversation, and you're building your relationship with Him. These two verses show similar but different circumstances when the Lord was there for Enoch and His people. In the hard times, in the battle, He helped them get through it. And then He blessed them and they flourished and had this amazing city. So what can you do to build your relationship with the Savior and invite Him into your life- in the good times and in the bad? Anytime you learn about Jesus Christ in the scriptures, try to apply it to your own life. Nephi taught that we should liken all scriptures to ourselves, and nowhere is that more important than when we are learning about Jesus Christ, because that relationship with Him is going to be life changing. That's why we read the scriptures- because He wants to be part of your life. I invite you to put in that spiritual work this week and build that relationship. It has been life changing for me. And now I can say that He's my Savior and my Friend, and it's the best relationship that I've ever had in my life. He's always there for me. He's with me in my battles and in my struggles He's blessing me. And by reading the scriptures, you can build that relationship with Him too. Thank you so much for being here with me on Primarily Scripture. I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning into primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website, primarily scripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time.