Alma 33

(April 11, 2013)
I read this chapter with a particular hope in mind – to gain strength for dealing with the conflict that is currently going on in my life.  I felt as I prayed before I read that I should not be looking for some amorphous ‘strength’ to come from my reading today, but rather for specific answers.

My eyes first were drawn to Zenos’s claim that, through prayer, the Lord turned his enemies to him.  Was that my answer?  Did I just need to pray more and my problems will be solved (certainly a possibility).  But then my mind began to focus on Zenos himself – what did he mean when he said his enemies turned to him?  I thought about his life, and how (ultimately) he was killed by these same enemies for preaching the Gospel.

At the end, I am left to wonder whether Zenos’s life is an example for the power of prayer or an example of the importance of enduring to the end even when your burdens overwhelm (or even take) your life.  I would much rather the former be the lesson I am supposed to learn, but I am thinking more and more that it is the latter that the Lord has been trying to communicate with me.