And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship. (1 Nephi 17:51)
This verse just looks like it’s about ship-building.
It’s not.
It’s about how a person with absolutely no “book learning” can know how to do something they should rightfully have no ability to do.
Listen to the faith of Nephi! Follow his example and allow yourself to have that same faith in your Higher Power, and in His personal concern for you. Even as Nephi, we must all make that same statement eventually. We all will come to a place where we have our backs up against a hard spot with no way out. Or we might find ourselves looking across a vast ocean separating us from our personal promised land. What do we do when we have no idea what to do?
We trust God.
When we are finally through looking everywhere else for a solution to our problem, we find ourselves in a place where all we can say is: If God has worked so many great miracles in the lives of other people, then why should I doubt that He can work a miracle in mine? He can and will lead me, one day at a time, to build my own program that will get me to my “promised land.”
This verse was a crucial one to me in my recovery. I came to realize that with the instruction of God, Nephi could and did build a ship, though he had no prior knowledge of the subject. If that was so, then I could build a program of recovery if I let God tell me how, each new day, one day at a time. So each morning, with my notepad and pen, I took dictation for that day’s assignment.
Today, my “ship” has been long since been built and has carried me to my “promised land” of serenity and sanity. It is worth the effort to find the faith that He can instruct you! There is room in this promised land for all who discover the Master ship builder. He can teach you to build your own program of recovery that will remove your character defects.
Try it! It works!
~Colleen H.
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