Even in the Midst of Trials Man are that They Might Have Joy!

March 8, 2013

This morning I was impacted by the trials the Lord permits his people to pass through in Alma 14 & 15

Verse 7 Those who believed Alma and Amulek were cast out and stoned

Verse 6-7Zeezrom is changed by the word and is also cast out with the believers

Verse 8 Their woman, children, and scriptures were cast into a fire

Verse 10 Alma and Amulek watch the believers suffer and die for their faith

Verse 11 the Lord’s delivering hand is stayed

Verse 17-18 Alma and Amulek are bound, harassed and cast in to prison for several days

Verse 22 Alma and Amulek are denied food, water, and clothing

Finally in verse 26 the Lord sees it fit to deliver Alma and Amulek by causing the prison walls to fall and kill the unrighteous in the prison.

Chapter 15 the trials continue

Verse 3 choosing to believe in Christ and follow him confronts Zeezrom with his sins and he becomes extremely sick.

Verse 10-11 Zeezrom is healed

Verse 16 Has Almuek been asked to sacrifice too much?

He gave up all his gold and precious belongings, and his friends, parents, and family rejected him all before he suffered in chapter 14.

Why does the Lord let us suffer and withhold his delivering hand for a season? The Lord sees it fit to test and try his people. By allowing suffering God removes comfort from his people, an act that reviles where his children will turn for comfort. For instance while Alma and Amulek watched the woman and children be thrown into the fire Alma stated “the Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand (14:11). Amulek than learned the God permits the innocent to suffer so the wicked can be judged. They received understanding and comfort by turning to the spirit.

Being denied food water and clothing further stripped them of physical comfort, a situation that further tested where their hearts turn for comfort. Would they get angry with God, or would they trust to the promised blessings?

Each instance of suffering is the Lord testing the individual’s faith just as peters was tested. When Peter stepped over the boat he walked on the stormy water because he was focused on answering the Lord’s call. When he looked away from the Savior and noticed the stormy sea he became afraid. The crucial moment is how peter acted when faced with fear. Would he follow his natural instinct to try and swim, or would he set aside the natural man and reach up to the savior. Trials are one way of testing whether I will turn inwardly in an attempt to swim back to the boat, an established safe place, or turn outwardly and reach up to the savior. In short, it is mine to find joy even while suffering trials in the hope that as I reach up to the Savior He will catch me in His time.