Enos prays mightily and gains a remission of his sins—The voice of the Lord comes into his mind, promising salvation for the Lamanites in a future day—The Nephites sought to reclaim the Lamanites—Enos rejoices in his Redeemer.
📜 15 Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.
We ask God in faith because Enos shows that faith is the condition that allows God’s promises to take root in us and bear fruit. Enos 1:15 is not just a statement about prayer—it is a window into how God works with His children and why our faith matters.
🌿 What Enos teaches us
about asking in faith
Enos anchors his confidence in one truth:
“I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records…”
That single conviction becomes the foundation for everything that follows. Because he knows God is able, he dares to ask—and he keeps asking.
From this verse, four reasons emerge for why we should ask God in faith:
1. Faith roots our prayers in
God’s proven power
Enos doesn’t cry unto God blindly. He cries because he knows God can preserve sacred things.
When we ask in faith, we are not guessing—we are leaning on God’s established ability to act in our lives.
Faith says:
“We ask because God is able.”
We can strengthen this section—“Faith roots our prayers in God’s proven power”—by choosing scriptures that show two things at once:
1. God has a history of preserving His word
(His power is proven).
2. His preservation invites us to trust
Him enough to ask in faith
(our prayers rest on His reliability).
From our list Preservation of Scriptures, several passages rise above the rest because they reveal not just that God preserves scripture, but why that preservation matters for our faith.
📒 1 Nephi 5:21 — “That we could preserve
the commandments”
Why this fits the section:
This verse shows that God preserves His word so we can keep His commandments. Preservation is not passive storage—it is active empowerment. If God preserves His commandments for us, then we can trust Him to preserve us as we seek to obey.
Principle:
God preserves truth so we can walk in it.
Because He preserves His word, we can ask in faith knowing He will also preserve us in our efforts to follow Him.
📒 Mosiah 1:5 — “Kept and preserved by
the hand of God”
Why this fits the section:
This is one of the clearest declarations that preservation is not human achievement—it is divine action. The phrase “by the hand of God” directly supports your theme: God’s proven power.
Principle:
God’s hand is already active in our history.
If He has preserved sacred records for generations, then we can trust His hand to respond when we pray.
📒 Alma 37:4 — “Kept and preserved by the
hand of the Lord”
Why this fits the section:
This verse repeats the same truth as Mosiah 1:5 but adds weight: Alma is teaching his son that God’s preservation is purposeful and ongoing. It is a pattern, not a one‑time miracle.
Principle:
God’s past preservation guarantees His present reliability.
Faith grows when we see that God’s power is consistent across generations.
📒 Enos 1:15 — “I knowing that the Lord God
was able to preserve our records”
Why this fits the section:
This is the anchor verse. Enos’s confidence in God’s ability to preserve scripture becomes the foundation for his faith-filled asking. He prays boldly because he knows God’s power.
Principle:
Faith rests on what we already know of God’s power.
We ask in faith because God has already shown Himself faithful.
📒 Alma 37:14 — “He will keep and preserve
for a wise purpose”
Why this fits the section:
This verse adds a crucial dimension: God preserves with intention. His power is not random; it is wise, purposeful, and covenantal.
Principle:
God’s power is purposeful, not accidental.
When we ask in faith, we align ourselves with His wise purposes.
📒 1 Nephi 3:20 — “That we may preserve
unto them the words”
Why this fits the section:
This verse shows that preservation is tied to future generations. God’s power spans time. If He preserves His word for those not yet born, then He certainly hears us now.
Principle:
God’s preservation is generational.
Faith grows when we see that God’s power reaches beyond our moment and into eternity.
How these scriptures strengthen this section
Together, these passages show a unified pattern:
▪︎ God preserves His word.
▪︎ God preserves it by His own hand.
▪︎ God preserves it for wise and
covenantal purposes.
▪︎ God preserves it across generations.
▪︎ God’s preservation is the foundation
for our faith-filled prayers.
This directly supports the teaching line:
“We ask because God is able.”
2. Faith opens the covenant channel
of receiving
God’s promise is clear:
“Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith… ye shall receive it.”
Faith is not a bonus quality—it is the condition that activates the promise.
Without faith, asking becomes wishing.
With faith, asking becomes covenant.
Faith says:
“We ask because God has promised to respond.”
For this second movement—“Faith opens the covenant channel of receiving”—the strongest scriptures from Preservation of Scriptures list, are the ones that show God safeguarding His word so that His covenant promises can actually reach us.
Preservation is not just protection; it is God keeping the channel open so His people can receive what He has promised.
These passages rise above the rest because they reveal that God preserves His word in order to preserve His covenant with us—and that is exactly why faith becomes the condition of receiving.
📒 1 Nephi 13:23 — “A record… which
contains the covenants of the Lord”
Why this fits:
This verse explicitly ties scripture preservation to covenants. The record is preserved so God’s covenant promises remain accessible to us.
If God preserves His covenants, then asking in faith is not reaching into the dark—it is stepping into a channel God Himself has kept open.
Principle:
God preserves His covenants so we can receive His promises.
Faith is how we enter the covenant channel He has already prepared.
📒 Alma 37:14 — “He will keep and preserve
for a wise purpose”
Why this fits:
This verse shows that God’s preservation is purposeful, not accidental. His “wise purpose” is always covenantal—His desire to bless, redeem, and guide His people.
If God preserves with purpose, then asking in faith aligns us with that purpose and positions us to receive.
Principle:
God preserves with intention, and faith aligns us with that intention.
Receiving is not random; it is covenantal.
📒 Mosiah 1:5 — “Kept and preserved by
the hand of God”
Why this fits:
This verse emphasizes divine action—God’s hand preserves the record. That same hand is the one that fulfills promises.
If His hand has preserved His word, then His hand can deliver what He has promised when we ask in faith.
Principle:
The same hand that preserves is the hand that gives.
Faith trusts the Giver enough to receive from Him.
📒 Jacob 4:2 — “These plates… give our
children knowledge concerning us”
Why this fits:
Preservation here is explicitly about transmission—God keeps His word so future generations can receive it.
This is covenant flow: God gives, preserves, and transmits so His people can receive.
Principle:
God preserves so His blessings can reach us across time.
Faith receives what God has already set in motion.
📒 1 Nephi 3:20 — “That we may preserve
unto them the words”
Why this fits:
This verse shows preservation as a covenant stewardship—God ensures His word reaches His people.
If God ensures the words reach us, then faith ensures the blessings reach us.
Principle:
God preserves His word so His promises can reach His people.
Faith is the receiving posture of covenant people.
📒 Enos 1:15 — “Whatsoever thing ye shall
ask in faith… ye shall receive it”
Why this fits:
This is the doctrinal anchor. Enos ties God’s ability to preserve scripture to God’s ability to fulfill His promises.
Preservation proves reliability. Reliability invites faith. Faith opens the channel of receiving.
Principle:
Faith receives because God has already proven Himself faithful.
How these scriptures strengthen this section
Together they show a covenant pattern:
▪︎ God preserves His covenants.
▪︎ God preserves His word so His
promises remain accessible.
▪︎ God preserves with intention—
to bless, guide, and redeem.
▪︎ God preserves across generations
so His people can receive.
▪︎ Faith is the condition that opens the
channel to those preserved promises.
This supports your teaching line:
“We ask because God has promised to respond.”
3. Faith keeps us asking continually
Enos “cried unto him continually” because he trusted that God would answer.
Faith fuels persistence.
Faith keeps us at the Lord’s feet long enough for Him to shape our desires and reveal His will.
Faith says:
“We ask because God hears us every time.”
Faith keeps us asking continually because God has shown—again and again—that He preserves His word long enough for us to return to it, wrestle with it, and keep coming back to Him.
From the list Preservation of Scriptures, the strongest scriptures for this section are the ones that show ongoing, repeated, persistent preservation. These passages reveal a God who does not act once and walk away, but who sustains, guards, hides, restores, and seals His word across generations.
That pattern mirrors what faith does in us:
God preserves continually ⏭️ we ask continually.
Below are the scriptures that best support this theme, with the “why” and the principle each one teaches in this section.
📗 Jeremiah 36:28 — “Write in it all the
former words that… hath burned”
Why this fits:
This is one of the clearest examples of God restoring what was lost. When the king destroyed the record, God commanded Jeremiah to write it again. God does not give up on His word—and that persistence mirrors the persistence He asks of us.
Principle:
God restores what is lost; therefore we keep returning to Him.
If God does not stop preserving, we do not stop praying.
📗 Jeremiah 36:32 — “Added besides unto
them many like words”
Why this fits:
Not only was the record rewritten, it was expanded. God’s preservation is not static—it grows. This shows a God who continues speaking, continues guiding, continues adding.
Principle:
God continues to speak; therefore we continue to seek.
Faith keeps us asking because God keeps giving.
📒 4 Nephi 1:48 — “Ammaron… did hide
up the records”
Why this fits:
Ammaron hides the records because he knows future generations will need them. Preservation here is proactive and forward‑looking. God ensures His word survives long stretches of silence.
Principle:
God prepares answers long before we ask. Faith persists because God’s preparation is continual.
📒 Mormon 5:12 — “They are to be hid up
unto the Lord”
Why this fits:
This verse shows deliberate, sacred safeguarding. The records are hidden “unto the Lord,” meaning they are preserved under His watch, not man’s. This is long-term, covenantal preservation.
Principle:
God keeps sacred things safe until the right moment.
Faith keeps asking because God keeps holding what we will one day need.
📒 Mormon 6:6 — “I… hid up in the hill
Cumorah all the records”
Why this fits:
Mormon hides the records knowing he will not live to see their purpose fulfilled. Preservation here spans centuries. God’s work is patient, steady, and unhurried.
Principle:
God works across generations; we work across prayers.
Faith persists because God’s timing is vast and trustworthy.
📒 Ether 3:22 — “Write them and shall
seal them up”
Why this fits:
Sealing is the ultimate act of long-term preservation. God commands that the record be sealed until a future day. This shows that God’s answers often unfold slowly, requiring patience and continued seeking.
Principle:
God seals answers until the appointed time.
Faith keeps asking because God reveals in His time, not ours.
📒 Ether 4:3 — “Commanded that I should
hide them up again”
Why this fits:
Another layer of preservation—hide them again. God’s repeated commands show that He is committed to safeguarding truth through cycles of apostasy, destruction, and renewal.
Principle:
God preserves repeatedly; we pray repeatedly.
Faith mirrors God’s own persistence.
📒 Moroni 10:2 — “I seal up these records”
Why this fits:
Moroni’s final act is an act of endurance. He seals the records even though he stands alone. His persistence reflects God’s persistence—and invites ours.
Principle:
God finishes what He begins.
Faith keeps asking because God keeps completing His work.
How these scriptures strengthen this section
These passages show a God who:
▪︎ rewrites what is destroyed
▪︎ adds more when needed
▪︎ hides truth until the right time
▪︎ preserves across centuries
▪︎ seals and reseals sacred things
▪︎ never abandons His word
This is the perfect parallel to Enos:
Enos cried continually because God preserves continually.
Faith persists because God persists.
4. Faith aligns our hearts with
God’s purposes
Enos wasn’t asking for convenience—he was asking for something God Himself cared about: the preservation of scripture.
The cross‑reference theme Preservation of Scripture shows that God has always guarded His word across generations.
When we ask in faith, our hearts soften, our desires refine, and our prayers begin to harmonize with God’s work.
Faith says:
“We ask because God invites us into His purposes.”
Faith aligns our hearts with God’s purposes because God has always preserved His word in ways that reveal what He cares about, what He protects, and what He intends to accomplish across generations.
From the list Preservation of Scriptures, the strongest scriptures for this section are the ones that show God’s preservation as purposeful, intentional, and covenant‑driven—the very things Enos aligned himself with when he prayed.
These passages reveal a God who is not merely protecting information but advancing His purposes. When we ask in faith, our desires begin to harmonize with His desires.
Scriptures that best support “Faith aligns our hearts with God’s purposes”
📒 1 Nephi 19:5 — “That the more sacred
things may be kept”
Why this fits:
This verse reveals that God’s preservation is selective and intentional. He ensures that the sacred things are kept. Preservation is not random—it reflects God’s priorities.
Principle:
God preserves what matters most to Him; faith teaches us to desire what He desires. As we ask in faith, our hearts begin to treasure what He treasures.
📒 Alma 37:14 — “He will keep and preserve
for a wise purpose”
Why this fits:
This is the clearest statement that preservation is tied to divine purpose. God preserves with wisdom, intention, and covenant foresight.
Enos’s prayer aligned with that same wise purpose.
Principle:
God’s purposes are wise; faith aligns us with that wisdom.
When we ask in faith, we step into the purposes God is already advancing.
📒 1 Nephi 13:23 — “A record… which
contains the covenants of the Lord”
Why this fits:
This verse shows that preservation is covenantal. God preserves His word so His covenants remain accessible to His people.
Enos’s prayer was covenant‑aligned—he asked for the preservation of the very record that carried those covenants.
Principle:
God preserves His covenants; faith aligns us with covenant work.
Our prayers begin to echo the promises God is already fulfilling.
📒 Jacob 1:3 — “Preserve these plates”
Why this fits:
Jacob is commanded to preserve the plates because they contain the things God wants future generations to know. Preservation here is stewardship—God entrusts His purposes to His servants.
Principle:
God entrusts His purposes to us; faith makes us trustworthy stewards.
As we ask in faith, we become participants in God’s ongoing work.
📒 2 Nephi 3:12 — “Judah shall write; and…
the fruit of thy loins shall write”
Why this fits:
This prophecy shows God orchestrating preservation across nations and lineages so that His purposes can be fulfilled. Preservation is part of a divine plan that spans peoples and centuries.
Principle:
God coordinates His purposes across generations; faith aligns us with His larger story.
Our prayers begin to reflect His long‑range vision, not just our momentary needs.
📘 D&C 3:19 — “For this very purpose are
these plates preserved”
Why this fits:
This verse states outright that preservation is tied to divine purpose. God preserved the plates for a purpose—to bring about His covenants and His redemption.
Principle:
God preserves with purpose; faith seeks to participate in that purpose.
Faithful asking becomes purposeful asking.
📒 Enos 1:15 — “I knowing that the Lord God
was able to preserve our records”
Why this fits:
Enos’s confidence in God’s preservation is what aligned his heart with God’s purposes. He asked for what God already intended to do.
Principle:
Faith aligns our desires with God’s intentions.
We ask in faith because God invites us into His work.
How these scriptures strengthen this section
Together, these passages reveal a unified pattern:
▪︎ God preserves what is sacred.
▪︎ God preserves with wise purpose.
▪︎ God preserves His covenants.
▪︎ God preserves for future generations.
▪︎ God preserves to advance His
redemptive work.
▪︎ God preserves because His
purposes endure.
This is exactly why faith aligns our hearts with His:
When we ask in faith, we begin to desire what God desires, seek what God seeks, and participate in what God is preserving.
🌾 The whole pattern in one sentence
We ask God in faith because faith connects our hearts to His power, His promises, His timing, and His purposes—so that what He intends to give can actually reach us.
How Faith Becomes Transformation
I testify that when I ask God in faith, I step into a living relationship with Him. Enos shows us that faith is not a distant idea but a covenant posture—one that roots us in God’s proven power, opens the channel of receiving, keeps us asking continually, and aligns our hearts with His purposes. I have seen in my own life that God preserves His word, His covenants, and His people. Because He preserves, I trust. Because He invites, I come. Because He hears, I will continue. Because He purposes, I align. My faith is not built on my strength but on His constancy. I bear witness that He is able, He is willing, and He is near to all who call upon Him in faith. Amen.
Faith That Sharpes the Heart
As we walk through Enos’s experience, we discover that faith is not merely the way we ask—it is the way God shapes us. Faith roots us in His power so we do not pray from fear but from confidence. Faith opens the covenant channel so our asking becomes receiving. Faith keeps us returning to Him, trusting that His timing is wise and His answers are sure. Faith aligns our desires with His, refining our prayers until they harmonize with His eternal work. In this way, asking in faith becomes more than a request—it becomes a transformation. We become a people who trust God’s hand, seek His will, and join His purposes with willing hearts.
Why We Ask in Faith
We ask God in faith because faith connects us to who He is and what He is doing. Enos teaches us that God’s power is proven, His promises are sure, His timing is patient, and His purposes endure. Faith roots our prayers in His strength, opens the covenant channel of receiving, keeps us asking continually, and aligns our hearts with His sacred work. As we ask in faith, we step into the flow of His preservation, His covenants, His wisdom, and His redemption. We become participants in what He is preserving, what He is revealing, and what He is preparing for generations to come. In all things, we ask in faith because God is able, God is faithful, and God invites us into His purposes.
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Dark and Thorny is the Desert
By Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mt. Boys
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