I’ve lived with the nagging fear the tale of the Zoramites is in the Book of Mormon because it’s so easy for me to slip into behaving like them. After Alma shows us how they “worship,” he records three different sermons. Each one used to reclaim these people. Each one touches a different fundamental aspect of discipleship, which if used, will help us become better disciples.
So, what topics are taught? We have Alma’s visually evocative lecture on faith. Will you ever look at a seed again the same way? He promises the test of the seed will work even if all you have is a desire to believe.
Then there’s the admonition to pray for everything: your crops (work), family, enemies and friends. That not only do you pray for them, but that you should pray often for them. I tend to forget the flip side of this in that we also need to help the needy. In effect, it’s acts of charity which give power to our prayers. Or, put another way: if you want God to answer your prayers, serve His children.
There’s a powerful lesson on the Atonement and lastly, (at least for this post) there’s the dire warning that now is the time to repent. Now is the time to improve ourselves. Those who think they’ll wait to the next life to repent will discover the spirit (God or Satan) they choose to listen to in this life won’t change at death. I learned this when I first became a missionary. Back then I thought, “when I become a missionary, I will become a mighty servant of the Lord.” Wrong. To my horror and shock, after arriving in the Language Training Mission, I found out I was still me. The only way I became a servant was by a lot of hard work, prayer, scripture study and fasting. Change came because I worked for it, not because my circumstances had.
No comments:
Post a Comment