"The Nephites were inspired by a better cause" to fight, "they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church." (Alma 43:45) -What kinds of things are we fighting for today? Who's side are we on? "this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith." (Alma 44:3) -How can we be this strong? What does it take? -Being strong doesn't mean we are strong all the time and we don't have weaknesses. It means we believe in the power of our Father in Heaven enough to call upon Him and we have the faith that He will help us as He will. Faith is hard. Believing in things we don't see and trusting in God and in His timing for us. Life isn't hard but I know that it would be so much harder if I didn't have the gospel in my life and a testimony of it. Fighting our enemy t...
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The Lamanites were a wicked people, for Mornoi to be put in command at 25 and to go fight against such a wicked people would be scary. - Moroni was a very righteous leader but he didn't go into battle without his weapons and armor. He knew that Satan will come full force and that just a testimony of God wasn't enough to fight off the enemy. -What is it that we do everyday or should we do every day to prepare for our enemy to attack us? He will if he's not attacking right now he is plotting something to get you with. We must have our foundations strong and our testimony sure in order to not allow him to defeat us. Something I always forget to do is ask for strength in times of trials and hardships I will eventually but I think I can do everything by myself. Blessing- I have an amazing priesthood worthy father who loves and cares for me.
Bruce R. McConkie said "Mercy is thus for the repentant, the faithful, the obedient, those who love and serve God. All other fail to escape the clutches of justice. 'Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.' (Matt. 5:7.) 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.' (Luke 6:36.) Salvation is the reward of those who conform to the plan of mercy. 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.' (Ps. 23:6.) "So infinite in scope is the plan of mercy that it applies to the living and the dead. Those who did not have the opportunity to subject themselves by repentance to the plan of mercy while in this life, but who would have done so had the opportunity been afforded them, will have their chance in the spirit world; they shall then be saved from the grasp of justice and, reaping the full blessings of mercy, shall go on to celestial reward. "'...
"all things should be restored to their proper order." (Alma 40:2) There must be a restoration of the gospel and of all thing things God has done. Bringing back the good into the world. -What do I desire? What are the desires of my heart? Today, tomorrow, in the future what will they be? What are tools we can use in order to make sure that our desires are righteous always and that we are always going towards our Heavenly Father? "wickedness never was happiness." (Alma 41:10) - This is an amazing scripture. It teaches a lot about life, relationships, and behaviors. When others are mean to us or when we aren't nice to others we aren't and can't be happy. God's ways and His teachings bring us happiness in our lives but if we don't follow them we are never going to be truly happy. There are a lot of people on this earth who have momentary happiness and they have to work at having happiness a little at a time but they never get the full joy tha...
-Our Heavenly Father knew that when he sent us down to earth we would sin and fall short the glory of god; "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" Romans 3:23-24 But He loves us perfectly so He planned for a Savior to redeem us from our sins but in order to have this blessing in our lives we must "repent and forsake (your) sins..." (Alma 39:9) This can seem like a big task because repenting requires a change of heart and mind. God has a plan for everyone and for everything that is going to happen. It gives me comfort to know that I can pray to Him and He will guide me to do what is right for me in my life. I know that He loves me and cares about every aspect of my life the good times and the hard times. It's interesting to see the different ways in which our Father in Heaven reaches out to us and Him in our lives and to guide us and direct us thoug...
Alma 38:5 "put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of our trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions," John Taylor "There is not a man upon the earth that has put his trust in God, I do not care what part of the world he has been in, but what can say that he delivered him. I know that has been the case with me, emphatically so. I have been satisfied, when in foreign lands and in strange countries, where I had no access but to the Almighty, that he was on my side, and I know that he has answered my prayers. (Journal of Discourses, 8:96, June 17, 1860) In the talk "Endure and be lifted up" by Russell M. Nelson he said, "This power to endure is critical in those two most important relationships we enter into in life. One is marriage; the other is membership in the Lord’s Church. These are also unique in that they are both covenant—not contractual—relationships." -It is so important to trust God and to put away all world...
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/let-all-thy-doings-be-unto-the-lord?lang=eng -It is a hard to give all of our troubles and afflictions to Christ. Why is that? Why is that such a hard task? I often forget that I can just give the worries and struggles to Him because He has already won the battle. It's so important to remember that we aren't doing this alone that we have our Savior Jesus Christ to fight for us and with us. -How faithful are we in living the gospel and keeping God's commandments? What more do we need to do? What more is asked of us. I feel like there is always something we can do something we can improve on in our lives to be a little more like our Savior. The blessing we have in these days is we have the scriptures and the words of the modern day prophets that we can read whenever we want if we want to know what God is asking us. We don't have to wonder or travel thousands of miles away from our homes to learn from God's prophet. ...
We are to teach our children many things in Alma 37 it teaches us some important things to teach them but also to be an example of: repentance and faith (vs 33) being humble be meek and lowly in heart " withstand every temptation of the devil " "never be weary of good works" "with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ" keep God's commandments (vs35) As we teach these things to others we must also learn to live them ourselves as well as be an example to others. These things are not easy but they are possible. I know that all good things come from God and that as we do as He asks that good things will come of us. Things will work out and things will happen as they are supposed to happen. Blessing- I'm thankful for friends who are there for you even when they aren't physically with you.
"by small and simple things are great things brought to pass;" (Alma 37:6) -To me thinking about this it makes me realize that my small acts, the little things that I do aren't that little and don't go unnoticed by God like they might by man. "the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote while a prisoner in the Liberty Jail in March 1839. 'Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power;. .' (D&C 123:16-17.) -God has His own purposes for things to happen and the more we listen to Him and are willing to Learn from Him the more wise we can and will become. Why not learn from the all Mighty One and gain all the knowledge we can from Him instead of from man who is just trying to figure things our like you are. -Our Heavenly Father has commandments that He wants us to follow and to obey. If we don't follow them then He will make sure the punishments of heaven fall on us not because he doesn't not love us but beca...
Alma had a great vision where he saw Christ Atoning for our sins, for his sins. I think that would be so hard to watch our Savior go through that especially after ou had just sinned. But on the other hand it would be comforting to know that Christ knew the mistakes we were going to make and that we would fall short the golory of God so he volunteered Himself to die for us. We have been promised in Alma 36:27 that we would be supported under every trial and trouble. Blessing- I have an education!!!
"...whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and be lifted up in the last day." (Alma 36:3) -I love this scripture it is such a good reminder of where we need put our trust and that we need to truly trust in God and allow him to support us and get us through the hard times. It's easy to forget when we aren't putting our trust in Him for everything in our lives and we are just trusting him in the smaller things. -You know we read time and time again and year from our church leaders time and time again that we need to put our trust in God and believe that He will guide us and direct us to whatever He has in mind for us. That is so much easier said than done. I often wonder how can I improve my trust of others and what do I need to do to trust God more? I do trust Him don't get me wrong but I also like to be in control of things and I'm stubborn so I probably take the hard way a lot ...
-What are we (am I) doing to prepare to meet God? To stand at His judgment bar and be prepared to see Him again? We are asked "have patience and bear with those afflictions, with a hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." (Alma 34:41) So we are asked to have patience and hope. These two things can be hard to have especially because we can't see the end, we never know what is going to happen, what we are going to go through or what we are preparing for. Sometimes I think of this life as studying or preparing for a big test but we don't really know fully how to prepare for it. We just study all the material we can or want to and try to follow it to be like Christ. But it is hard to try to be like someone we don't know. So if we don't study the scriptures and study His life then we won't be able to be like him. Blessing- I was able to get home safe last night!
-We learn a lot about the importance of prayer in Alma 34 and when and what to pray just praying because. It's interesting because feel like I pray a lot formally and informally but how sincere are my prayers Or am I just going through the motions? I think lately I have been going through the motions a little more because I don't know what to pray for. -How can we improve our prayers? What is needed to do this? We are asked to be charitable. Have the pure love of Christ and serve others around us. this can be easier said than done. If we don't don this we are as dross and cast out. Dross - waste matter -How can we find more ways to be charitable? What are the most important things t focus on? Prayer is the way we communicate with God, reading the scriptures is the way God communicates with us. So I think prayer and scriptures study should be more important in the lives of God's children. Why is it that those are the things we often put off and yet they are the ...
Because we can only be saved through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we must come to know Him and have a relationship with him. Christ performed the "infinite atonement" for me, for each of us who have ever been on this earth, suffered for our sins. He died so that we might live again. How are we showing Christ and our Father in heaven that we believe in Christ and that we accept His infinite atonement? I believe there is always something that we can improve on. Always some way we can change and e more like our Savior. I'm reading the book "The infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister it is amazing. I will have to re-read it a few times but what I have learned from it so far is amazing. It makes me so thankful for Christ and for His undying love for me and the sacrifice He made for me to return to my Heavenly Father. Blessing: I have beautiful hair!
What is it we have to do on our part to know that Christ is the Savior and that the scriptures are the word of God and they happened? Desire, study, ponder and pray,.. ==> Testimony!!! Christ sacrificed all so that I might live and return to my Father in Heaven. If it weren't for his infinite and eternal sacrifice we would all be lost. I can't imagine the love that would take on His part to have for each of us.
Henry B. Eyring said "Just as soil needs preparation for a seed, so does a human heart for the word of God to take root. Before he told the people to plant the seed, Alma told them that their hearts were prepared. They had been persecuted and cast out of their churches. Alma with his love and the circumstances of their lives, which led them to be humble, had prepared them. They were then ready to hear the word of God. If they chose to plant it in their hearts, the growth in their souls would surely follow, and that would increase their faith." (To Draw Closer to God, p. 186) -I like this quote because it is a good reminder that we need to prepare ourselves to hear the word of God. We need to go to meeting, start our studies and enter sacrament meeting in the right frame of mind and ready to be edified and uplifted by the word of God. -We aren't asked to do a lot of things in this life but we are asked to do things that aren't easy. "...if ye will nourish th...
-We must do our part to gain faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Harold B. Lee said, "The prophet Alma presents an excellent explanation of the progressive steps by which one proceeds in his search for truth from a desire to experiment upon the words of the Lord to the 'exercise [of] a particle of faith, yea, even . . . no more than [a] desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion' of the words of the Lord; then by spiritual processes within one's own soul his knowledge and testimony is made 'perfect in that thing, and [his] faith is dormant.... ' (Alma 32:27, 34.) "As one reads this whole text, he finds clearly prescribed the way by which all may receive a testimony or 'knowledge by revelation' as defined above: first, desire; second, belief; third, faith; fourth, knowledge or testimony." (Stand Ye In Holy Places, p. 194)* -How strong is my faith? What can I do to s...
"faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21) Spencer W. Kimball said, "The exercising of faith is a willingness to accept without total regular proof and to move forward and perform works. 'Faith without works is dead' (James 2:26), and a dead faith will not lead one to move forward to adjust a life or to serve valiantly. A real faith pushes one forward to constructive and beneficial acts as though he knew in absoluteness. The Prophet Alma gave the near perfect address on faith in the thirty-second chapter of Alma. He gives us: 'Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.' (Alma 32:21.) "Faith is the planting of seeds, the taking of steps. Faith is the child, and when nourished and fed, grows into maturity and becomes adult in deep assurance and perfect ...
The poor in heart are poor in spirit but not spiritually poor. The term "poor in spirit" means to be spiritually humble, to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit.* -The people can't go to their synagogues to pray and worship so they are lost and don't know what to do. How often do we do things like things with our minds? We get so stuck in what we usually do and what is normal to us that we can't 'expand our minds' or 'think outside the box' for more ideas? This is what Satan wants us to do to have a carnal mind which is an enemy to God (Romans 8:7) -Also we are told that we should worship God with all our hearts, mind might and strength which means we worship Him always, not just on Sunday. Alma 32:21 faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things - I like what is said here by Orson Pratt, he helps us really know what faith is and entails. he said, "There is a great difference between faith and knowledge. I am told that there...