BYU-Hawaii Librarian Douglas Bates described how a scripture he learned in his youth contains "a pattern for our lives...with five parts and a promise" during a devotional address to students and faculty on July 24.
Bates began his talk by quoting a scripture found in the Doctrine and Covenants 90:24. "Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another."
To illustrate the first part to the pattern of 'searching diligently', Bates recalled how after soon arriving in Sweden on his mission he was feeling discouraged. His father had died a short time before he entered the Language Training Mission, and it was cold and dark in the far northern country.
One morning during scripture study, however, his spirits lifted.
"As I read a warm spirit came over me and it felt almost as if I was there and the Lord was speaking to me," Bates said. "I had received much needed encouragement to carry on and something I could look back on when times got tough again."
Bates used D&C 18:34-36 to further illustrate that feeling. "These words are not of man or of men but of me, wherefore you shall testify they are of me and not of man. For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you, for they are give by my spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another, and save were it by my power you could not have them. Wherefore you can testify that you have heard my voice and know my words."
He said that gospel study, indeed all study, has been precious to him. "I have a professional interest in the phrase, 'seek ye out of the best books'" joking that he knows where thousands of them are. "I will let you borrow them, if you promise to bring them back."
"Much of the information you study now will change," Bates said, pointing out they can't take the faculty with them but will always have access to books and knowledge. He noted the Lord did not tell us to seek "until you're 25. It's a lifetime responsibility."
He encouraged the students to follow the principles contained in the 13th Article of Faith as guides to their choice of study and recreation materials.
"There are cumulative benefits to searching the scriptures," Bates said. "We fill our minds with truth and light...which we can draw on throughout our lives. This develops a growing confidence in the presence of God."
"Having confidence in the presence of the Lord is a powerful blessing and relates directly to the second part of the pattern of 'praying always'" Bates said. "Prayer is an opportunity for us to enter the presence of the Lord."
Bates recalled a time when his family was young and he was about to lose his job, that he was being recruited for another position on the East Coast. His wife asked him if he had prayed, but he hadn't. "No sooner did I begin, than the Spirit whispered to me, 'They will offer you a job, but you should not take it.'"
"I thought, there must be some mistake," Bates said, who still took his family east, "but that particular weekend was one long stupor of thought."
Bates asked if receiving an answer to prayers, do we go and follow the counsel the Lord gives us.
He cited the story of Naaman in the Old Testament, who when told by the prophet Elisaha to bathe in the River Jordan seven times to cure his leprosy, is at first skeptical, but later, at the urging of his servants, obeys and is cured.
"Do we believe what the living prophets say?" Bates asked.
"Let us consider carefully all of the counsel that the prophet gives us, and not ignore the seemingly small yet significant direction because we are waiting for some great thing," Bates said. "In either case, part of believing is that we follow the counsel of the prophet."
"When we do what we are supposed to do, not only are we blessed, but we bless the lives of those around us," he added.
"God makes and keeps promises. We can absolutely and unconditionally depend on what He has said and promised to do," Bates said.
"All of us have periods of trial and testing that sometimes include pain and sorrow," he continued. "When I look back at some of those times I can see how patterns of events, both large and small, have all worked together for our good."
"Brothers and sisters, let us prove the Lord. Remember, 'Search diligently, pray always and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another'", Bates said.