1 Nephi 15:11

When I was in highschool, I made my first attempt at a scripture journal.  I had decided to study faith.  It seemed to me at the time that having more faith would assuage some of the anxiety I felt concerning pressures at school and worry for my future.  I had read that faith and doubt can't exist together, but I couldn't seem to will away my doubts that all would be well.  So, I figured, I needed more faith.  But how to get more faith?  That was the question.

I looked up scriptures on faith.  I studied Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith.  I came to understand a little more about what faith is, but I stopped studying before I found the answer to my question because I figured I didn't have the materials I needed (like maybe a whole library of church books) nor did I have access to the people who would know something like that (maybe a General Authority, or at least a Stake President).  I knew I had grown from my studies, but in the end, I felt I had a bigger question than the one I had started with.  How does one go about studying the gospel?

Since then I have gained a strong testimony of simplicity in gospel study.  Heavenly Father really does tell us what we need to do.  Why do we try so often to complicate things?  The Holy Ghost is our best teacher, the scriptures our guide, and prayer our chance to converse one on one with our Father in Heaven.

Still, the thought often flits through my mind, "I wish I could ask the Bishop about that."  Then, I have to remind myself that I don't have to ask the Bishop, I have direct access to to Heaven through prayer.  I have learned so many things from having that conversation with myself.  I just have to give one example because I get excited every time I think about it.  Last year, I was studying the New Testament and loving it, until I got to the writings of Paul.  I seriously paused and flipped pages back and forth one morning thinking, what is he talking about?  Did I miss something?  It turns out that, yes, I had missed something.  Long ago, I had stopped using the Bible Dictionary feeling that it didn't really have anything good in there (this was probably about the same time I decided the answers must all be in books written by other people that I didn't own).  I kept reading, even though I was totally lost, and I kept a prayer in my heart that I might understand.  Soon after, I flipped to the Bible Dictionary and found an entry entitled the Pauline Epistles.  Laaaaa (imagine light beams shining on the page)...Clarity!  It turns out the writings of Paul were arranged, not in chronological order, but by length.  Just that information was incredibly helpful, but then the Bible Dictionary goes on to explain a ton of other things.  It became my guide to Paul's writings, and I learned a valuable lesson.  Our standard works contain a lot of help for us, if we simply learn to use them.

Some other invaluable sources for studying the gospel are General Conference talks and whatever book we are currently studying in Relief Society and Priesthood meeting.  Through all these things I finally learned the answer to my question about faith and many, many other answers as well.  I was reminded of all of this as I read 1 Nephi 15 because now I can see the answer to that old question in places where I never noticed it before.  Like in 1 Nephi 15:11:

"...If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

Do you see it in there?  The answer, tucked between two commas as if it could be left out of the sentence and it really wouldn't matter?  Obedience.  That's how you gain more faith.  By being obedient.