Alma's Desires - Part Two

Alma 13:28-29 After listing things that the Ammonihahites needed to do to repent, Alma enumerated the blessings related.

The first one is one of those commandments/blessings that I find so often in the scriptures. As I've been marking the scriptures with colored pencils, I have a different color for commandments than I do for blessings. But I've come to realize that many commandments ARE blessings. For example, we're commanded to become humble, but humility is also a blessing from the Lord.

So the people are commanded to watch and pray, as I said in the previous post. But they're to pray for a specific blessing: that they are not tempted above that which they can bear. The last part would be the blessing. And what a great blessing! Could that also apply to trials? That we don't have a trial harder than we are able to bear? So that if things are really tough, we know that the Lord has the confidence in us that we can bear this hard thing without losing our testimony.

Alma then lists different blessings that come as a result of repentance and obedience.
1) Being led by the Spirit - If I could have confidence that I was always listening to the Spirit and being led by it, that would give me such confidence and joy!
2) Becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering. Here again we see attributes that can either be commandments or blessings. I believe that as we obey and repent, the Lord blesses us with these attributes.
3) Having faith in the Lord
4) Having hope of eternal life
5) Having the love of God always in our hearts
6) Be lifted up at the last day
7) Enter into His rest
8) The blessing of repentance

These are beautiful blessings and well worth all our efforts to be obedient and faithful.

Alma's Desires

Alma is almost finished preaching to the people of Ammonihah. In Alma 13:27, he tells them, And now, my brethren, I ^awish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great ^banxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not ^cprocrastinate the day of your repentance;
28 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and ^awatch and pray continually, that ye may not be ^btempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be ^cled by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, ^dmeek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;

29 ^aHaving faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the ^blove of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his ^crest.

Alma is filled with so much love for the people, he aches for them to repent and serve the Lord. But they have their agency and will choose not to repent.

He gives them steps which we can apply in our lives as well:
1) Hearken - Listen, hear, internalize, be aware. He says, "Hearken unto my words". We can't hearken unless we know his words, so first we have to study and listen. That includes scriptures, conference, our leaders, prayers - any of the many ways the Lord teaches us. We need to learn, listen, hearken.
2) Cast off your sins - In other words, repent.
3) Not procrastinate the day of your repentance - We can't wait around until we're done sinning. We never know when it may be too late. We need to repent NOW!
4) Humble yourselves - We need to let go of the glorified view we have of ourselves. Today's society encourages us to think we're powerful and great, deserving of anything we want. If we could just see ourselves as little children beside a loving father, we could be teachable and grateful.
5) Call on His holy name - We need to talk to our Father, really communicate with Him.
6) Watch and pray continually - This is kind of a continuation of the previous one. Not only should we pray, but we should do so continually. Our hearts should be centered on Him, and we should be thinking about Him and discussing our day with Him and thanking Him as we go along. The word "watch" means to look, observe, pay attention. It means to stay alert and be on guard. We need to be alert and on guard against evil and Satan. We need to pay attention to promptings that come. We need to beware of laziness and complacency in keeping the commandments.

For me, the rest of this scripture selection constitutes a promise for obeying the commandments just given, so I'll discuss those in the next post.

The Blessing of Death

Alma 12: 26 And now behold, if it were possible that our first parents could have gone forth and partaken of the ^atree of life they would have been forever miserable, having no preparatory state; and thus the ^bplan of redemption would have been frustrated, and the word of God would have been void, taking none effect.

This is contrary to the teachings of most of Christianity today. People think that if only Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, we all could have lived forever in a state of paradise in the Garden of Eden. But if Adam and Even hadn't partaken of the fruit they never could have had children. So we wouldn't be there at all. And if they had been able to stay in the garden because of partaking of the Tree of Life, they would not have had time to repent.

The interesting alternative to save us all from that fate is death. Alma shows that introducing death to the world was a blessing to Adam and Eve, and to all of us. He says in Alma 12:27: But behold, it was not so; but it was ^aappointed unto men that they must die; and after death, they must come to ^bjudgment, even that same judgment of which we have spoken, which is the end.

Rather than have us live forever in our sins, we were blessed to have a time to repent, and then a time to die. And then a time to be judged.

Death isn't a big black monster, an end of self, a black hole of existence. It's a blessing, a "passageway to all eternity".

Amulek teaches about the resurrection in Alma 11:
42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the ^abands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

43 The spirit and the body shall be ^areunited again in its ^bperfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, ^cknowing even as we know now, and have a bright ^drecollection of all our ^eguilt.

44 Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be ^arestored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body . . .

This is one of the beautiful scriptures in the Book of Mormon which give me great comfort and hope. One of the inevitable parts of life is death. Although it's universal, that doesn't diminish the pain and anguish for those left behind. But, oh, the peace and comfort of the resurrection! The thought that our loved one will be restored to their proper and perfect form, not mouldering forever in a grave, is like a healing balm to a grieving soul. All this is possible only through the great sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How grateful I am for Him!

The Prayers of the Righteous

In Alma 10:22-23 Amulek tells the people, "if it were not for the ^aprayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by ^bflood, as were the people in the days of ^cNoah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence, and the ^dsword.

23 But it is by the ^aprayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will ^bcast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the ^ctime is soon at hand except ye repent.

The prayers of the righteous have a great effect in the land. In Alma 14:7 we see that prophecy fulfilled as the Ammonihahites cast out and burn the righteous. Soon after that, the city is destroyed by an army of Lamanites.

We sometimes feel helpless as we try to make a difference in our lands, by our actions and our prayers. Bit we need to remember that our prayers do have a great effect and sometimes can contribute to saving the land.

I Knew, Yet I Would Not Know

Amulek now introduces himself to the people of Ammonihah. He is well known among them, but says that he never knew much of the ways of the Lord. He says, "I knew . . . but I would not know." He had seen God's mysteries and His marvelous power, but he hardened his heart. He was called many times, but he would not hear.

I think many of us are in the same condition. God is always calling and beckoning to all of us, but we always have a choice. If we harden our hearts, we can pretend that something was just a coincidence, or that we were just lucky. Sometimes it takes a great tragedy to get us to soften our hearts enough that we can hear and know. How much easier if we humble ourselves and listen for His voice, have faith, and "go and do"!

God Shall Come in His Glory

Alma 9:26 Alma says that Christ shall come in His glory. That confused me, because He came as a helpless baby, not in His full glory that will accompany Him at the Second coming. We are told that He proceeded from grace to grace. As He grew in knowledge and grace, I assume His glory grew as well. Even though not everyone could behold His glory, it was part of who He was. We know He had power to heal the sick and raise the dead, but He could also manifest His glory to whoever He wanted to.

Attributes of Christ

Alma and Amulek are preaching to the people of Ammonihah without much success. In Alma 9:26 Alma gives a list of the attributes of Christ. I decided to look up each word in the list of attributes in either the Bible Dictionary or Topical Guide to make sure I know the meanings of the words or phrases.

He shall be full of:
1) Grace--What He does for us. See p. 697 of BD
2) Equity--He gives each person what they NEED, distributing fairly. That means that not everyone gets the SAME, because our needs are different.
3) Truth--John 5:6 The Spirit is truth; D&C 84:45 Truth is light; my favorite is D&C 93:24 Truth is knowledge of things as they are.
4) Patience--All of the references in the TG seem to refer to patience as a quality WE need to develop, but when you look up Long-suffering, it says "see also Patience".
5) Mercy--Luke 1:50 His mercy is on them that fear Him; Isaiah 49:15 He will not forget us; Isaiah 54:8 with everlasting kindness will He have mercy on us; 1 Nephi 1:20 tender mercies id Lord are over all those whom He has chosen.
6) Long suffering--2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is long suffering to us-ward; 2 Peter 3:15 The long-suffering of the Lord is salvation.
7) Quick to hear the cries of his people--He loves us and is sensitive to the cries of his children.
8) Quick to answer their prayers--BD He wants what's best for us and will answer our requests when our wishes are the wishes of Christ.

They That Be With Us Be More Than They That be With Them.

2 Kings 6:16, 17 Here Elisha and his young servant find themselves surrounded by an army bent on destroying them. The servant asks Elisha what they should do, and Elisha assures him that the Lord is protecting them. He then prays that the servants eyes will be opened, and the servant sees that the mountain is full of horses and chariots of fire.

Often we feel so alone and overwhelmed and desperate. We can see that we don't have what it takes. We measure our abilities and talents and resources and compare them to the needs and requirements of our lives. We see that we come up short most of the time. If we could only see that the Lord with all His angels and armies are on our side. He will sustain and help us. He will guide us. We just need to open our eyes and have faith.