“And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.” (Alma 32:40-42). I think many of us often take too passive an approach when it comes to the Word of God. We likely don't typically consider the word of God to be something that we must nurture on our part, and, in fact, we probably usually assume the exact opposite. The word of God is supposed to nurture us! But Alma makes it clear that if we want to feast on the words of Christ, then we have to put in the work. The three keys to nourishing the word of God are faith, diligence, and patience. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, or the soil in which we can plant the Word of God. Faith is all about going out into the real world and putting into practice what we are studying. If the word of God is truly going to take root in the soil of our faith, then we have to be out there applying it to the actual situations in which we find ourselves. Every time we find practical use for the scriptures we are reading, then the word of God puts down another root. But we have to add to our faith diligence, and particularly diligence unto prayer. We can't just go about trying to apply scriptures and exercise faith randomly. We have to be constantly seeking the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Ghost in our prayers, and then being still and observant for long enough to actually receive and follow the guidance. The more diligent we are at seeking and following the promptings of the Spirit, the more that the Lord will pour down upon us His living waters to nourish the seed of His word that is taking root in the soil of our faith. And last of all we need patience. A growing tree has to absorb a lot of light over a long period of time before it can start to produce any fruits. We may need to continue toiling away with our faith and our diligence and receiving only small drops of Heavens light day by day for weeks or months or years before the words that we have been studying and thinking about and applying in our lives for so long finally start to click for us and we can finally get to the point where we are no longer looking forth with the eye of faith to fruit and understanding that has not yet come and but can actually begin to feast upon the words that we have so faithfully and diligently and patiently been nourishing for all this time. It may seem a high price to pay to work for so long before we finally see a return on our investment, so to speak. But in the end, if we take the time to nourish the word of God, then eventually we will get to the point where the word of God nourishes us.
