Mosiah 24-25

(September 8, 2014)

                The Lord, speaking to Alma, told him that He would stop the Lamanites in the valley of Alma.  Why was that?  After all, could He not have just as easily stopped them in the valley before the valley of Alma?  Presumably so, but the Lord wanted the people of Alma to move on – He wanted them among the Nephites, and He used the continued threat to push them where He wanted them to go.

                Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we would like to stay, but the Lord applies pressure to us (and often that pressure is quite uncomfortable) in order to push us where we need to be.  Sometimes the situation where we want to remain is a temporal one, and sometimes it is a spiritual one.  Sometimes we are in the job we want, and we require pushing to reach the job He wants us to fulfill.  Sometimes we are in the spiritual condition we want to be in, and we require pushing to reach the higher level of obedience and testimony that He wants us to reach.

                The other thought that I had was contrasting again the deliverance of Limhi and Alma.  In Alma’s deliverance, it was clear that the Lord had intervened, but Alma made certain to point out that it had been the Lord that had delivered Limhi, not his own efforts.  Sometimes I think the greatest risk we face when we engage in our own efforts is that we trust the arm of flesh too much and lose sight of the fact that the Lord is in charge.  Even when we come up with the plan and run it to perfection, it is still the Lord that brings our deliverance – it is important that we never forget that.