Nephi teaches us how to get personal benefit out of the scriptures. The scriptures often speak to individuals who were in very different situations than ours, but the principles of the gospel and the fruits of righteousness are the same. We should, therefore, study the scriptures with the intent to apply them to our lives, to imagine that the Lord is speaking directly to us, and to respond to our callings as the prophets of old did.
“Gospel principles do not tarnish with time, nor do they apply with greater effect in one day than in another. The Lord has said, ‘What I say unto one I say unto all’ (D&C 93:49). The art of gospel teaching is to make timeless principles timely. Nephi did this by taking those prophecies that were made to the entire house of Israel and specifically applying them to his own family, who are part of the house of Israel.” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 149)
Gene R. Cook
“It is absolutely essential to apply the scriptures to yourself…[when] we’re searching to apply them to our own hearts is when they really come alive…If you really want to come unto the Lord, if you really want to draw close to Him and find out how He is, how He works, how He thinks, what He counts to be important and what He doesn’t, you’ll find it in the scriptures.” (LDS Church News, Deseret News, Nov. 19, 1988)
Brigham Young
“Do you read the Scriptures, my brethren and sisters, as though you were writing them, a thousand, two thousand, or five thousand years ago? Do you read them as though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them? If you do not feel thus, it is your privilege to do so, that you may be as familiar with the spirit and meaning of the written word of God as you are with your daily walk and conversation, or as you are with your workmen or with your households.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 128 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p.63)