Nourishment to Roots

In Jacob 7:5 we see Sherem an anti-christ leading away many and attempting to lead away Jacob from belief in Christ.

We see instructions here in Jacob's experience about how to be prepared and protected from falling short in the strength of testimony that we must have since we live among numerous anti-Christs that will attempt to lead us astray.

Jacob explains that he was protected because he had " heard the voice of the Lord from time to time. "

To me that means that Jacob had spiritual experiences with the spirit and personal revelation that he could hold onto when times were hard.

Jacob 5:7

And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.

Another example of this truth was explained in the previous chapter. In the Allegory of the Olive Trees we are told by the servant in the vineyard why the tree started to be corrupt.

Jacob 5:

48 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?

To me this can be likened to ourselves as the tree in this example. The top of the tree became too heavy for the root to provide adequate nourishment to hold it up.

In our lives if we allow ourselves to be weighted too heavily with belongings, responsibilities for work, our homes, maybe even by activities and friendships - then our tree is too full for us and we may not make time to recieve strength from our roots. Our roots also may not be taken care of either as we do not take time to go to our Savior who strengthens them.

If I dont allow myself time needed in the scriptures or prayer, I could begin to become lofty or prideful like the tree exemplified here.

My roots will not have nourishment to give if I do not go get the nourishment of living water from my Savior through prayer, repentance, and scripture study.

 Since our testimonies are like a plant we must continually feed, we need to go to the Savior to prune and feed us.

I hope that I can do better to spend more time in meaningful prayer and scripture study where the Lord has as truly does speak to me in the scriptures and in my heart.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ.amen.