"And when they saw that they were encircled about with a pillar of fire, and that it burned them not, their hearts did take courage."
Helaman 5:24
The timing here is what I find interesting. Nephi and Lehi had been in prison "many days" without food at this point, and this day they were to be executed, so I am guessing that they were a little worried before this. But then, as they came to get them to put them to death, God encircled them with a pillar of fire, and incidentally converted about 300 people that were in the prison as well. :)
This happens to us too, where we're worried sick over something, and God delivers us at the last minute. Some people say God is cruel for allowing us to suffer... that even when we are delivered in the end, that the suffering in the middle isn't worth it, and that it is some game that God plays with all of us.
I think though that when God says that "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28), he doesn't just mean the nice things, but that all of our experiences, together, are not only what makes us what we are, but that they are part of each other... things that we can't understand alone, but we have to understand in the context of everything else. Kind of like in the movie Shadowlands: "The pain then is part of the happiness now." We look back sometimes and say that if we lived some part of our lives over again we'd do it differently. But we are who we are in part because of that past incarnation, and we had to learn from that person to become this person. :)
Today, let's remember that if God spared us all the pain, he would also be sparing us all of our choices and experiences. Let's take courage knowing that God is there and that he will deliver us. It might not be immediately, but it will happen.
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