It
is remarkable to me how merciful God was to the believers of the Zoramites.
Because the leaders were sneaky and wicked, those who believed who may not have
been valiant enough to say they believed under different circumstances, still
got cast out, and therefore saved from destruction. It probably felt like a
horrible day when they got rounded up and sent away, like a huge trial. But God
was really saving them from the destruction that was coming to the rest of the
Zoramites. I know God loves me, and works for good in my life. I wonder how
often the hard horrible things that happen are really God’s tender mercies in
my life. I think it goes again to the not complaining, but moving forward with
peace and trust that I keep feeling like is something important I need to work
on.
Alma 35:1-7
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
Alma 34:18-41
I am really confused by prayer. Alma is talking about
praying about all of your life, and asking for diving intervention and
prosperity. But then my understanding of prayer has been that it is really
about coming to know God’s will, and conforming myself to it. I don’t’ quite
know how to get my head around it. And when people don’t pray, and they prosper
in a worldly sense, is that still coming from God? I know everything comes from
Him, I just don’t understand the relationship with prayer. Maybe it is just to
keep us remembering that it all really does come from Him. Asking for help is a
way of remembering and being grateful?
And then Alma tells us that praying doesn’t do us any good
if we don’t take care of each other and have charity. It reminds me of Debb’s
talk yesterday, about how the only true way to check our level of discipleship
is how we think about other people—if we see them as Christ does, and children
of God, and love them. Is Alma’s point here really about true religion? Praying
is supposed to bring us closer to God, but if we only talk to Him, and then do
nothing good, we aren’t really progressing. He talks about praying to ask for
mercy and salvation. Salvation is really repentance, and changing our natures.
It seems like the point is focusing on loving people as the thrust or point of
that change. We still have to be participants in the work of building ourselves
by choosing to act in love to the people around us everywhere.
Sometimes it feels like anything short of Mother Theresa’s vow
of poverty and lifetime of continuous service is the only acceptable path. I know
it can’t be, but I can’t feel the balance.
I love that in verse 31 Alma is very clear that as soon as you
repent and soften your heart the plan of redemption works immediately in your life.
The idea of already being saved is so comforting and important, and so often lost.
I also love his talk about why repenting after you die doesn’t
work. You will still be yourself, and repentance is change. It is a slow and hard
process. Who you are in the moment you die is still who you are wherever you Spirit
goes, and if I have been stubborn and prideful, and that has kept me from repenting,
I will still feel the same. It is so hard to change, and the more progress I can
make now, the happier I will be now, and the happier I will be then.
In verse 36 it stands out to me as important that the righteous
in the kingdom of God are those whose garments are made white in the blood of the
Lamb. It isn’t because of the perfection they have personally obtained, it is because
they are in the covenant and holding on to Him. Sometimes, okay, a lot, I feel like
I am more righteous than others, but that can never be the case. I am just as dependent
on the Savior’s grace as anyone else. It is only my pride that ever tells me otherwise.
Alma 34:18-41
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