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LDS guided scripture meditations to help you find peace through Jesus Christ, so you can have the Spirit to strengthen you throughout your day. I'm Vauna, and I come from the perspective of my faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These mindful devotionals follow Christ’s simple and beautiful promise in the Book of Mormon where he said, “If ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.” Let’s contemplate some of the sweetest scripture verses together and remember that God is always inviting us to abide in His love.
Bring light and peace into your life with this mindful devotional and scripture meditation on D&C 6:36. You are listening to Doubt Not Fear Not, from the O Remember podcast, a time of deep reflection to help us remember that when we center on Christ our doubts and fears will ease and fall away. I’m Vauna and I’m so pleased to share this time with you as we seek more peace in our lives by centering on the true source of inner peace, Jesus Christ. I come from the perspective of my faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here we can follow Christ’s simple and beautiful promise in the Book of Mormon where he said, If ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.
Let’s start today by checking in and noticing what is in your center right now. What are your thoughts centered on? What is the energy of your soul focused on? Just take note of that and file it away for reference as we reflect on this scripture.
And now, We will get more out of this time if we let go of any worries or distractions that would keep us from sensing the presence of the infinite Holy Spirit. God is always offering us peace and insight but too often we miss it because our mind and body are tense and troubled. You deserve a peace break today, right now. So let’s begin by noticing your breath. How could it be more relaxed and easy? Take some big deep breaths and release them slowly, allowing all that space in your chest to open and relax, and feel that serenity spread from your heart through the rest of your body. Envision that your heart is pumping peace all through your body. All the tightness in your face eases, your shoulders drop, your belly relaxes, your legs and feet rest. Your breath continues slower and fuller. Your mind slows down and opens up. Nothing else needs to be done, this is the most important thing you can do right now.
Our scripture today comes from the D&C 6:36. It’s just 10 little words and yet when we learn to do this, our experience on this earth will be infinitely more peaceful and more powerful.
We will read this verse four times so you can go a little deeper each time and allow it to sink in to your heart and mind where it can guide you. This is too important to rush through or pass by. The first time we read this, listen for a word or phrase that stands out to you.
D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
What word or idea started to see meaningful to you? Let’s read it a second time and reflect more on that thought.
D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
As this verse become more familiar to you, what do you think God wants you to understand today? Let’s read it a third time and ponder on what impression you are getting, it’s fine if it’s a very quiet and subtle idea, that is often how we receive these messages.
D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
And now for the fourth and final time, we’ll read the scripture and seek for what action is God inviting you to do. What is important for you to take with you into your day and even your life? What do you want to do differently?
D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
This could also be a good time to write down the thoughts and feelings you’ve had so that you can remember them. The more you treasure the inspiration God sends to you the more he will inspire you.
And now let’s express our gratitude for the insight we’ve received. Heavenly Father, thank you for helping me see that it’s possible to let go of doubt and fear and that you have created the way for me to do that. Thank you for the gift of your Son, His life and His atonement that redeems me from many things including doubt and fear. Help me return my thoughts again and again to Christ, to center my soul on Christ, so I can face this life with the peace and strength of Christ inside me.
One of the things I love in the scripture is that Just because fear and doubt come naturally and everyone experiences it doesn’t mean that God meant for us to always be in a state of doubt and fear. It gives us permission to live more often in faith and peace. That even thought doubt and fear seep in, we don’t have to let it take over, and the way out is to turn our thoughts to Christ.
I see now that my level of doubt or fear is a measure of sorts, it tells me how fully I am looking to Christ. If I’m doubtful or afraid, how can I turn the dial up and focus even more intently on Jesus? If I could dial up to 100% faith I’m sure I would be feeling 0% doubt or fear. And That isn’t something we should use to judge ourselves because when we notice that we’re feeling doubt and fear, we can be compassionate and give ourselves some understanding acceptance. Of course it’s there. This is a complicated world and we are young souls just developing the power of faith. And, at the same time, we can decide we want to get better at moving out of doubt and fear and into faith and love.
One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “What is in my center?” When I start noticing that I feel annoyed, disappointed, worried, afraid, or overwhelmed I try to remember to ask, What is in my center? What are my thoughts spinning around? Is it someone else’s behavior? Is it my to-do list? Is it distressing global news? Or maybe just not being able to find a pair of shoes that fit? Once you identify it you can begin to recenter on God. God and the gospel of light and truth. His love for you. His promises. His plan of happiness. His ability to turn every hard thing into spiritual growth for you and those you love. The miracle of His gift of life, the wonder of the universe He created. When we turn our thoughts to God, we feel those distressing emotions subside and peace expand. We doubt less, fear less.
Like most of you, my mind naturally defaults to a lot of mundane, unimportant thoughts that are mostly just reactions to whatever is happening around me. Or often endlessly but ineffectively spiraling over disappointments and frustrations, fruitlessly analyzing them over again and again. It's natural that our minds spin around and around on the many concerns we have. When we arrived here on earth we were given greater responsibility and agency, so many significant things we are now in charge of. This is new. It’s a lot. We are still learning to manage this mysterious mind body and spirit combination.
Well, recently I was listening to a podcast and the word inconsequential lit up for me. I have no idea any more what the context was, but that word seemed to have a message for me. I sensed that I could be even more in charge of my thoughts than I am. That I am allowing inconsequential things to take more time and energy than they deserve.
I often feel like I don’t have time to be as connected to God as I would like to be. And I realized that I actually do have time scattered throughout my day that I am completely wasting. Like a kitchen faucet that is left on and a steady stream of water is just running down the drain, when I could be filling up a glass and taking a refreshing drink again and again. Even if it’s just a sip, it can be healing.
Maybe we can start being more aware when our mind has drifted to inconsequential things and bring it back to meaningful things. When our thoughts have gone down a rabbit trail to notice and call it back. Come back, come back! More mindfulness, less mindlessness. As we do that we are literally training our brain to keep eternal truths top of mind and it will become easier and more natural and instinctive to look unto Christ in every thought.
What would it feel like if you could get to where you just naturally looked unto God in every thought? Remember at the beginning when we started this devotional, what your thoughts were centered on. Maybe you can imagine what it would feel like to intentionally turn your thoughts away from that and toward Christ. How would that feel? Imagine what the rest of this day would be like if all doubts and all fears just melted away every time your soul centered on God. How would this day be different? What would be possible? Try that on for a moment.
But we can try to do life all on our own limited thinking or we can accept God’s offer to be with us through it all. That starts with noticing who or what is in our center. He wants us to look unto Him in every thought because he knows that’s the secret to our ultimate joy. When God is in our center we allow him to guide us, to soothe us, to inspire us, to heal us. It is so much better that way.
I look forward to joining with you next time, when we’ll talk about making the Sacrament a time for growing in spiritual power.
Until then, O remember Christ, that you may have his Spirit to be with you.