Sincere Heart, Real Intent, And Faith

Moroni's formula for obtaining truth and knowledge from the Lord is praying with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ. Each of these ingredients can be improved upon. The first time we seek revelation from the Lord, our heart will not be all that sincere, our intent not very real, and our faith lacking. We may even come to the conclusion that revelation, the kind of clear, distinct, irrefutable knowledge that we desire is unobtainable. But if we keep working at it, we will discover over time that through trial and error and repentance and determination and humility, our heart will become more and more sincere. We will take what scraps of inspiration we receive, what small evidences of God's love and tender mercy we are able to recognize, and we will allow these to soften and purify our hearts so that they are more and more sincere in their desire to know and understand God's will. And as we do this, we will find our will and our thoughts aligning more and more with our Heavenly Father's, which will make our intent more and more real. And all of this effort and change and progress will grow and develop and strengthen our faith in Christ. And day by day, we will see the truth clearer, which will lead us to ask more sincere and more real and more faith filled questions, which will prepare us to receive deeper answers. If we don't know the gospel truths as much as we would like, then that just means we still have some work to do in making our heart more sincere, our intent more real, and developing our faith a little more.