2 Nephi 7

(Below is a list of questions and quotes that help me think about each verse as I read it. The numbers represent the verses in the chapter.)

The Lord will never turn away from us or forget the covenant he has made. The Savior desires to redeem his covenant people and has all power to do so. Refusing to follow The Lord, thinking that you can see well enough without him, is to walk in darkness.

1. Why was Israel separated from God and suffering in captivity? Or is it important to understand that your thoughts, decisions, and actions can separate you from God? Why is it also important for you to know that the Lord never a forgets or forsakes you, even though sometimes you may forget or forsake him?  If you are further away from The Lord today than you were yesterday, who moved? What sorts of things can cause you to be separated from the love of The Lord? What must you do to move yourself closer to The Lord?

2. What do you think the Lord meant 20 asked is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Imagine you're stretching out your hand, trying to reach someone in need. If you want to link in your reach, what would you be trying to do for the person in need? If instead you shortened or pulled that your hand, what would it say about your desire to help the person? How does this image help you understand the Lord's question in this verse?

4. How might you learn to glorify the name of your God that you may rejoice and lift up your head forever?

5-7. Hold the Messiah do and experience as part of his atoning sacrifice to redeem you? What do these verses show you about the Saviours desire and willingness to redeem you?

"The God who created everything was judged to be nothing! And yet he endured it with complete patience. Imagine the Being whose power, whose light, whose glory holds the universe in order, the Being who speaks and solar systems, galaxies, and stars come into existence - standing before wicked men and being judged by them as being of no worth or value! When we think of what he could have done to these men who took him to judgement, we have a new and different sense of his condescension. When Judas led the soldiers and the high priest to the Garden of Gethsemane and betrayed him with a kiss, Jesus could have spoken a single word and leveled the entire city of Jerusalem. When the servant of the high priest stepped forward and slapped his face, Jesus could have lifted a finger and sent that man back to his original elements. When another man stepped forward and spit in his face, Jesus had only to blink and our entire solar system could have been annihilated. But he stood there, he endured, he suffered, he condescended." - Gerald N Lund, 1991

10-11. How would you like to try to read or walk by the light of sparks?What kind of light do the obedient walk by? What kind of light do the wicked walk by?