I learned a lot about Satan this week. As you read 2 Nephi 28-29 you see our day and the power he has over the world. The moral decay of our world is very pronounced and he is has dominion. The one aspect of Satan that I had never considered was that he thinks he can win. That if he can get more people to commit sin the sheer numbers will give him victory and he will be become God and have all the glory. In a talk by Elder William J. Critchlow, Jr., Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, in 1967 he brings up the wide held belief that Satan does what he does because he wants all to be miserable like himself but that it is more than that. This concept opened my eyes to a wider perspective and made Satan more real to me.

After spending time on the bad I then immersed myself in the good. To be taught again about the baptism of Jesus. To understand that even though He was perfect He was obedient to His father and set the example for us to follow. How even He needed the gift of the Holy Ghost to sustain Him and that my Father gives me this same gift. How amazing is that!

Chapters 31-33 of 2 Nephi are so powerful. I pulled out my actual paper scriptures and found that I had marked several scriptures that touched my spirit.

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

 21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

 9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.

It is so plain and simple. Our Father loves us. This is His plan. If we follow it as best we can and endure we will have eternal life with him.