Humility is the gateway to redemption and inner peace. Through the tutelage of suffering and sorrow, we can be moved to humility. The Lord will have us learn—either now or in the day of judgment—that every knee shall bow and give glory to God (see D&C 88:104). We will learn that humility is the only way to receive the blessings of God. In the case of Nephi’s contemporaries, their suffering brings them down into the depths of humility—and because of their humility and penitence, the Lord responds to Nephi’s prayer and brings rain again upon the landscape. This miraculous cycle of famine and relief has the desired effect, and the repentant people rejoice in the blessings from heaven. The people uphold Nephi as a great prophet (verse 18). However, the stabilizing effect of spiritual rejuvenation is short lived, for the Gadianton influence waxes strong once again and suffocates a brief flickering of remembrance among the people.
The scriptures teach us clearly that we must oftentimes be humbled in order to repent: “Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit” (D&C 19:20).
Humility that accompanies godly sorrow for sin is often expressed as anguish and agony for one’s misdeed. There is a healing aspect to this process, as President Spencer W. Kimball explains:
Repentance involves deep humility. The recognition of guilt should give one a sense of humility, of a “broken heart and a contrite spirit,” and bring him to the proverbial “sackcloth and ashes” attitude. This does not mean that one must be servile and self-effacing to the destructive point, but rather one must have an honest desire to right the wrong.
Whatever our predispositions when influenced by the pride of our hearts, the person convinced of his sin and suffering godly sorrow for it in humility is reduced—or rather in this case elevated—to tears. Thus he expresses anguish for his folly and for the grief it has brought to the innocent. Those who have not been through the experience may not comprehend this reaction, but the spiritual writers with their deep insight understood that there is a healing balm in tears for the humble soul who is reaching toward God. Jeremiah wrote: “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.” (Jeremiah 9:1.) The Psalmist cried in his anguish: “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.” (Psalm 6:6.) And again he pleaded: “Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.” (Psalm 25:16.) (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], 88)