Welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young, and for the next several weeks, we are going to be looking at some of the many different things you can search for when you study the scriptures. We have all heard the phrase,"Search, ponder, and pray." It's the title of one of my favorite primary songs, and it's the basic recipe for having a productive scripture study. And by productive, I mean that you get something out of it. Because of course you can read the scriptures and not search or ponder or pray, but you will definitely not get as much out of it if you just read the words and close the book. But what should you search for? That part isn't always clear, especially when you're new to scripture study. Now, the good news is that over time and with practice, you will find your own favorite things to search for, what works with your style of learning, and what touches your heart. But in the meantime, I'm here to give you some ideas and some guidance as you get started. This week's Come Follow Me reading is in the book of Jeremiah. Now, you'll remember that in one of my previous episodes, we talked about how you don't have to read every single chapter in the Bible to have a successful study, and this week's reading is an example of that. The recommended chapters are 1 - 3, 7, 16 - 18, and 20. But for our study today, right now on this episode, we are specifically looking at chapter 1, and we're in verses 4 through 10 and 17 through 19. And you can find these verses on my free worksheet found at primarilyscripture.com. This worksheet gives you some pondering questions about these verses. And what I mean by pondering is that these are suggested ways to think about the verses, and especially how to apply the principles to your own life. But what I really wanna do with you right now is hone in on one question that I ask right here by verse 19. But first, let's read verse 19 so that we know what it says.

"And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee saith the Lord to deliver thee." Isn't that a great, great verse? I love it. Okay, now my question is what other phrases in these verses, meaning the verses on the worksheet, but also in all of chapter one, what other phrases in these verses support this idea that the Lord would be with Jeremiah?' Cause the Lord says it right here, right?"I will be with you." So is that the only time that He mentions it? Is it the one verse that we go off of, or is there more to help us to really know that we can trust the Lord? Now, one way to search is to find an idea or principle, like this one that we just found, and then try to find the same idea again. And one of the easiest ways to do that, which we have talked about before in previous episodes, is to look for repeated words or phrases. So you might decide to go back through chapter one and see if you can find the phrase, "I am with thee," in any other places, and that is a fabulous thing to do. Super, super great. And spoiler alert, I'm gonna tell you where it is. It's only repeated one other time in this chapter, and it's in verse eight, where it says, "Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee," saith the Lord. Now, when a phrase is repeated, it's an invitation for us to stop and think about it, and that's the pondering part, right? But if you're not looking for a repeated phrase, then you might miss it. Now, let's take this search to the next level. What would happen if we looked for the same idea, but not just a repeated phrase, but the same idea repeated in other words? Have you ever done that before? This is so exciting. This is where your study really goes to the next level. So let's do it together. We'll go back to verse four, which is the first verse on the worksheet here, and we'll see if there's anything in this verse that supports this idea, even if it's worded differently. Verse four is very short."Then the word of the Lord came unto me saying," all right, that's very short, and you might be tempted to just move on, because this is an explanatory verse. It just explains to us who is talking in verse five, in the very next verse. But wait, we are looking, we are searching for ways that the Lord is with Jeremiah. Is there anything in this verse that points to that? Well, it says that the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, and that is definitely one way that the Lord was indeed with him. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. There it is. We almost skipped it, you guys. Don't skip those little verses. Look a little deeper and see what else is there. Let's keep going. Verse five says, and remember that this is the Lord talking. It says, "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee: and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." This verse is so important. It teaches us that we existed before we were born, and that God knew us. And while that is super, super important doctrine, if we stop right there, then we might miss the connection that we are searching for to the Lord's promise that he would be with Jeremiah. How does this verse show us that the Lord would be with Jeremiah? Doesn't it tell us that God had already been with Jeremiah? And by extension, if we're really thinking about it, then that means he's been with each of us, too. When we think about it, right, which is the pondering part, think about it, what does that teach us? It proves to us that God keeps his promises. He was already with Jeremiah, and Jeremiah could then trust that God would continue to be with him as Jeremiah stayed worthy of his presence. Oh, I just love it so much! All right, let's keep going. Verse six is Jeremiah's reply. Now remember, in verse five, he was just told that he would be a prophet. And now he says, "Then said I, 'Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.'" Haven't we heard other prophets use this same phrase, that they just get so worried and they think, "Um, I'm not really good enough to do this. I'm not old enough. I'm not experienced enough. I cannot do this." And once again, we might want to skip this verse because like verse four, it's just explaining a response or who's talking. It doesn't talk about what the Lord is doing, and we're specifically looking for how the Lord is with Jeremiah. And since this is Jeremiah talking, you might just want to move on. But wait! Is there anything that supports or repeats the 'I am with thee' idea? Who was Jeremiah even talking to? Of course, he was talking to the Lord. He was so worried about what he was being asked to do. He didn't post it on social media though, or he didn't go complain to his friends at church about how hard this would be. He told the Lord why he was worried. That wouldn't have meant much if the Lord wasn't there with him, even if it's just in spirit. The Lord was with Jeremiah and listening to him, and a person that Jeremiah could talk to. Do you see how searching for something really helps to bring new depth and meaning to your scripture study? Now, you might be saying, "Cindy, I don't think I need to do this. Can't I just see these things as I read? You don't specifically have to look for them." Well, that is true to a point. Just like you don't have to do anything special besides having your eyes open to know if there's a person standing in front of you, you don't have to be doing anything besides reading your scriptures in order to find many principles and truths. They are there, and just reading your scriptures is an important first step. But have you ever done this experiment? Take 10 seconds right now and look around you wherever you are right at this moment and count how many things around you do you see that are blue? Anything at all that you can see, any shade of blue. Got it? Great. Now close your eyes. Remember what you saw, and tell me, how many things did you see that were red? And if you looked again right now, would you probably discover that there are more red items around you than you realized? Yes, you would. Why is that? Because now you are looking for them. When you focus on something, you can notice new little things about it. Okay? So were the red items hiding before you looked again? No, they were there, but you didn't notice them because you were looking for blue. And in day-to-day life, you might notice one or two red items by themselves at different times."Oh, I was looking for a pen, and then I discovered there's a red pen in my pencil cup." Does that now mean that you've noticed every red thing because you saw one red thing? Of course not. It's not until you decide to look for the red or for the blue or for whatever that you suddenly see it everywhere, even if it's something very small. Try this experiment, you guys. You will be amazed. You could do it with cars. You could think, "Hmm, when was the last time I saw a fill-in-the-blank kind of car?" Right?"When was the last time I saw a Corvette or a Volkswagen or whatever?" You will start seeing them. The same goes for scripture study. If you are skimming through, you might notice the phrase, "I am with thee," and you might think that that's pretty cool. You might even mark it with your colored pencils. Oh gosh, I hope so! But then you would likely move on. It's not until you decide to stop and search for that same idea that you suddenly see it echoed in verse four and in five and in verse six. And if you keep reading, you will see that the Lord is with Jeremiah in nearly every verse in this chapter. Sometimes it's by giving him knowledge and coaching him through his new job as prophet, but the Lord is also physically with Jeremiah. He gives him a job to do. He gives Jeremiah a pep talk in this chapter! Now that we're looking, we see it everywhere and in many different ways. It's so exciting! I love doing this! Now, what do you do with this information? Once you see all the connections, you find the theme of this, this principle of the Lord being with us. Well, hopefully, you're thinking about what it means for you, too. That's a super important step. How the Lord will be with you when you are doing what you are supposed to do, and when you are trying to follow Him. And if nothing else, then you can file it away in your brain, and you will find that you do this with a lot of things you read in the scriptures, because not every verse is perfect for every day of your life. But you can file it away, and one day, you will need this exact message that the Lord can be with you. And you know what? The Holy Ghost can then bring it to your memory. That's one of his jobs- to remind you what you already know. So if you look for knowledge, if you look in the scriptures and search for things, then later the Holy Ghost can take what you found through your own searching and help you remember. And it's even better if you annotate your scriptures. We had several episodes about that. Write in your margins or write on a sticky note what you found, the thoughts you had, the feelings in your heart. And then one day in the future, you just might open up your scriptures on a particularly hard day, and this message will be exactly what you need. Or it might be what your friend needs, or the perfect story to use in your talk or your lesson. The way that it blesses your life is completely unknowable to me. Everybody's life is different. But when you do the work, the Lord will magnify your efforts, and it can become a piece of your testimony, because now you've experienced it a little bit. You didn't just read the words and then move on. You took the time to experience it, to recognize and identify how is the Lord with Jeremiah? It's not just a saying that's there. This is real. The Lord actually was with Jeremiah in this verse and in that verse, and in this way and in that way, and now you're building that testimony and your knowledge. As you continue to study the Book of Jeremiah this week, look for more of this theme of the Lord being with him and helping him. And there are more themes that you can look for. Some of the ones that I noticed were themes of agency and consequences, the call to repentance, and the Lord using his prophet to reach out to his children in love. Repeated words are great. Always look for those repeated words. But there's so much more you can do when you take it to the next step and search a little deeper for repeated ideas and principles. Oh, I hope that you love this study tip as much as I do, but you won't know if you like it until you try it out. I'm Cindy Young, and I'll see you next time right here on Primarily Scripture.