Lesson 45: “Never Has Man Believed in Me As Thou Hast” The Brother of Jared: Faith, Prayer, and Crossing the Ocean

Lesson 45: “Never Has Man Believed in Me As Thou Hast” The Brother of Jared: Faith, Prayer, and Crossing the Ocean

Attention Activity:
Start by playing a couple rounds of 20 questions. You can pick any object, person, or topic and have the class guess by asking only “Yes” or “No” questions. You can get the class involved more by having them come up with the answer and act as the “answerer” in the game. After the activity ask, “What are some of the key elements of good questions in this game?” “What are some of the best methods of finding out what the answer is?” Today we are going to look at an example of someone trying hard to find answers to questions. We will see what his best methods were.

Class Discussion:
I would start by telling the students that we are going to talk about the example of the Brother of Jared (BOJ) in his quest to get answers. Ask the class what they already know about some of the things that the BOJ did in order to get answers. (Once they have given a few ideas, you can then help them by having them look at certain verses to try and find the answers.) Here are some of the ones I found. You could find even more:

· Repentant attitude (2:14-15)
· Obedient to commandments (2:16-18)
· Worked toward an answer (3:1)
· Studied the scriptures (2:23a This one takes a little work. If you look at the footnote for this it takes you to Gen 6:16. If you look at the footnote in Genesis it states that Noah may have traveled with similar lighted stones. BOJ could have come up with this idea by studying the scriptures. Help the class come to understand this connection before moving on.)
· Humility (3:2)
· Faith that God can do all things according to His will (3:4-5)

Now, look in 3:6-13 for the amazing outcome of this situation. I would use the quote from the manual at this point.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “The brother of Jared may not have had great belief in himself, but his belief in God was unprecedented. In that there is hope for us all. His faith was without doubt or limit. … Once and for all it was declared that ordinary people with ordinary challenges could rend the veil of unbelief and enter the realms of eternity” (Christ and the New Covenant [1997], 29).
Point out that what Elder Holland is trying to teach is that this story is so amazing because the BOJ is just like us. He had problems and forgot to pray at one point, but still had enough faith to overcome those weaknesses and enter the presence of the Lord.
Now have class members look in Ether 5:4. What is the principle that Moroni is teaching? (That God uses the law of witnesses to establish truth) We are going to use that same principle with our ideas on prayer. Split up the class and assign or have every person choose one of the six principles above. Their assignment is to find at least one other scripture anywhere in the Standard Works that shows that principle being used to get answers to prayers. (The index and Bible Dictionary are your best resources here. You will want to do some research and come up with a few just in case you need to give some help to one group, or to add to the discussion.) Now discuss the findings of their research.

Application:
Ask class members to pick one of the principles above that they need to work on in their personal prayers. Talk with class members what they have picked and what they can do to improve their prayers.

Additional Information:
Two great talks you will want to read and incorporate into this lesson are the last two talks from Elder David A Bednar in General Conference.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-31,00.html
http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-14,00.html