Alma 32

(October 9, 2014)

                What struck me in this chapter was the necessity of patience.  I have, in my day, cried to the Lord for an immediate answer to a desperate prayer – an answer that I thought that I needed at that precise moment, or else all was lost.  A time or two, He has even answered me immediately.  But most of the times He answered my prayer, but did so at the time and place of His choosing rather than mine.  Those times when He did answer me right away seem less about the answer being necessary to perform His work, and more about communicating to me that He hears me and knows me.

                There is no substitute for patience in dealing with the Lord.  Whether it is building our testimony or changing our nature, there is nothing that will cause us to instantly become what we want and need to become.  There is no shortcut on the strait and narrow path.  I know what I want to happen in my life in so many areas, but I am also beginning to understand that those that are even possible to receive must be received in the Lord’s time.  In the meantime, I can take comfort in the slow but inexorable growth that I feel within my soul as I take those steps that the Lord has asked me to take.