The Book of Mormon contains 543 questions. Some of these questions are extremely powerful. For
example, “Are we not all beggars?” Or, “Is not a soul at this time as precious unto God?” Or,
“Who can glory too much in the Lord?” Of course, there’s also every deacon’s favorite question,
“Whither shall I go to obtain food?” If you’re interested in seeing all 543 questions in the
Book of Mormon, you can click the link in the description to access a spreadsheet.
As I’ve looked at all of these questions, I’ve found some interesting facts. 61 different
individuals ask questions in the Book of Mormon, including prophets, missionaries, investigators,
and apostates. Alma 5 has the most questions – 42, of any chapter in the Book of Mormon. Alma 30 is a
distant second with 22 questions. Alma the Younger asks the most questions in the Book of Mormon.
He asks 103 questions, or about 19% of all the questions in the Book of Mormon. Even if Alma
5 were not included, Alma the younger would still ask more questions than anyone else in the Book of
Mormon. Nephi’s in second place with 41 questions. Today, I want to focus on a key question posed by
Mormon. He asks, “What is it that ye shall hope for?” Think about that question for a
moment. What do you hope for? I’ve found that for many of us, our hopes center on temporal issues.
I hope I can do well on this test. I hope I can find a better job. I hope the right person will
want to marry me. I hope that people don’t judge me or a family member based on X circumstance.
Although we can appropriately hope for many things, across the hundreds of times the word
hope appears in the scriptures, it rarely describes hoping for a temporal outcome.
In fact, in answer to his question “What is it that ye shall hope for?” Mormon says,
“Ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of His resurrection,
to be raised unto life eternal.” Throughout the scriptures, we are told to center our hope
in Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist said, “Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord.”
Now, as generally used in scripture, hope isn’t a list of the temporal things that we want. Instead,
hope is a belief that Christ is real, that the blessings made possible through his atonement
are efficacious, and that we will be resurrected to eternal life. True hope is less that we will
be able to afford a new house, and more that Christ has prepared for us heavenly mansions.
True hope is less that our children will make good choices, and more that Christ’s atonement is
strong enough to reach them now or in the future. True hope is less that our allergies will go away
this week and more that we will be resurrected and have no more allergies in a future day.
While a home, children who make good moral choices, good health, and many other goals
are worthy desires we can strive for, we should work to convert our worries about these things
into a hope that in the coming day, God shall wipe away all tears, there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. The ultimate antidote to worry
is a hope centered in Jesus Christ. If my hope is centered in an outcome like getting into graduate
school, my children doing their chores, receiving a good assignment at work, or excelling at some
task, eventually I am going to be disappointed. However, if my hope is completely centered in
Christ, I will always have the courage to move forward. Truly the Savior is the Hope of Israel.
So, how do we have more hope in Christ? How do we obtain this hope? Mormon taught “The Holy Ghost
filleth with hope.” The more we can invite the spirit into our lives through prayer, service,
temple worship, family history, and many other ways, the greater will be our hope in the Savior.
Studying the scriptures is specifically highlighted by prophets as being a key
to increasing hope. They are the words of Christ that will give us the guidance we need.
In a letter to his son, Moroni, Mormon provides another important key for increasing hope:
always remembering the Savior. Mormon writes, “My son, be faithful in Christ;
and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death;
but may Christ lift thee up and may his sufferings and death, and the showing His body unto our
fathers, and His mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of His glory and of eternal life,
rest in your mind forever.” I love that. It’s the hope of eternal life, not the things of this life,
that need to rest in our minds forever. My prayer today is that you and I will
center our faith and hope in Jesus Christ. We can find great joy and peace in him.