"The Truth Shall Make You Free"

Among the many reasons that we should read the scriptures daily is because in the scriptures we find the truths of eternity. We have been sent to earth to "obtain a body and gain earthly experience, to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize [our] destiny as . . . heir[s] of eternal life" (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). Without eternal truth to guide our footsteps in this life, we will not be armed to make the correct choices that will help us gain the kind of experience that will qualify us for eternal life.

During His earthly ministry, the Savior gave the following counsel to His followers:

 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:31-32)

The challenge of mortality is to "continue in [His] word." Of course, we won't be able to so continue unless we know His word and follow it. As we go to the scriptures daily, to learn and live the truths therein, we are incrementally strengthened against the temptations that would otherwise prevent us from continuing in God's word. I know that this is true, because I have experienced it myself and have observed it in the lives of others.

Through this simple practice of prayerfully going to the scriptures daily and courageously and consistently applying them in our lives, we will become ever more "firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of God" (1 Nephi 2:10). That is what it means to continue in His word and to increasingly know the truth, which will make us free from false doctrine that would lead us away from the divine destiny that God has prepared for each of us.

Joseph Smith provided this supportive insight: "Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.  But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we . . . keep those we have already received" (Smith, Joseph, Jr., TPJS, 255-56).

Let us read and follow the scriptures daily, so that we can lay claim to the great blessings of eternity.